June 29th- Dublin & Galway, Ireland

Katelyn and I had originally planned to o the Sandeman's Dublin walking tour but we didn't think we had enought time to do the full tour and make it to the train station to get to Galway. We decided to set out on our own and just explore and grab lunch for a couple hours. We ended up stumbling upon this kewl store that's insanely cheap. Its called Penney's and its operated by Primark. It was perfect. I spent like $40 and got 6 things and I don't regret a second of it. This may be because I got some overalls. You know I love them. Since we spent an inordinate amount of time in here we needed to grab lunch and go back and get our bags before our train. We went in the first place we saw which turned out to be this awesome fast food place. I know what you're thinking, "How can those two words go together?" Well they can. This place has 3 different food options and a separate ice cream portion. So one option is McDonalds meets Chick-fil-a, aka quality meat and flavor with burgers and chicken. The next option is like Firehouse subs sort of- hot sandwichs, wraps and yummy salads (I chose this place). Lastly, there was a Papa John's pizza but they had way more options than just regular pizza, like calzones and pizza bites (I KNOW!!). What a great idea. You can serve so many people's needs in one place and its quick. Whoever came up with Supermac's, you are genius. 

In other news, we made it to the train and it yelled at me to stop smoking when I went to the bathroom. I was in the "stall" and it starts beeping at me telling me to extinguish my cigarette and that a staff member is coming to get me and I am all what?? Then the water won't turn on for me to wash my hands which I can only assume is so you can't like hide the smoke smell or something? Anyway I freaked out and hurried back to my seat. Don't smoke kids, it isn't worth it. 

Out the window I can see real live sheep with black faces. Like who knew that they were this cute. When they frolick in the fields I feel like my life is complete and I can die happy. It is the most beautiful scene. Ireland is just gorgeous and the expansive land is something from a Medieval storybook. 

What is not something from a storybook is the fact that I haven't worn clean clothes in about 9 days. You're welcome. When we get to our AMAZING perfectly located hostel in Galway, getting laundry done is like Christmas. I am actually embarrassed to give them my clothes because there is an odor. A strong odor- not like body odor but worse. Let me explain that though. In Korcula- yes like 5 cities ago- I meant to hand wash some things but ran out of time. I had stacked them in the bathroom by the shower. The shower leaked. I didn't know they had gotten wet but the next day I had to pack them. They mildewed in the bags and I tried to dry them in Dubrovnik but honestly the smell stays. I regret it but hey, what are you going to do? I warned the woman not to inhale when she washes my clothes and she assured me she wouldn't. I had hoped we would have the clothes by the next morning before our trip to the Cliffs of Moher so I didn't have to wear the same outfit for the 4th day in a row. Thank god I got more underwear at Penney's am I right??

 

Katelyn and I got this cool Medieval walking tour audio guide from the front desk-super nerdy but I didn't want to waste any time in Galway. On the way to start the tour and look for food we saw a young girl doing hairwraps in the street. Could this be heaven? Naturally we had to stop and get one because it was so cheap and it took her no time at all. It was a new technique and it was with yarn but a hairwrap is a hairwrap and we couldn't resist. 

Looking like tourists on our audio tour.

 

I love it. Love love love. 

So we found dinner and finished the tour and then passed out. We were tired and tomorrow is the Cliffs of Moher so we needed to be well rested and ready to go. I love Ireland. Did I say that already?? It is wonderful.

June 27th and 28th- Travel to Dublin, Ireland

June 27th- Zadar, Croatia

Man am I getting used to these 5:30 AM alarms. I would love to write some poetic words about how its nice to get up with the birds and the way the light shines on the water in the wee hours of the morning is unparalleled but I cannot. We have a super fun 8 hour bus ride ahead of us and I am very excited. NOT. The plan is to just watch Date Night (my favorite movie) over and over again until we are there. Well of course we get on and I try to go to be immediately because its semi-quiet and it is still really early. I honestly don't know what I was thinking because the man in front of us was picking his head and I was doing everything I could just to keep from vomitting. Not sleeping with that vision burned into my retinas. 

What to do?? Read? Sure, why not. I started my new book and got so into that I never stopped again. We took a few breaks and we actually had really good scenary nearly the whole trip. 

We arrived around 16:30 and made our way to the hostel. It is literally in the middle of nowhere. I mean honestly people are turning their heads to look at us because we are surely lost. Oh well, it is not like we wanted to spend time in Zadar anyway. We walked down to the grocery to get things to make dinner and headed back. I went to bed early. I think I slept with a mosquito last night- it was all a blur and obviously I wouldn't done it by day. ... The marks all over my face and body indicate we really went at it and he won. I have 7 mosquito bites on my FACE. I have a total of 31 on my arms, stomach and ankles. They are driving me insane and I can't stop scratching.

I finished my book ps. 400 pages makes me feel like the day wasn't a complete waste. 

June 28th- Travel to Dublin, Ireland 

We arrived at the Zadar airport at 4:45 by taxi and waited for it to open before going through security and arriving at 1 of 5 gates. The flight was no better than yesterday's bus and I couldn't sleep even though I knew it was going to be a loooong day. We lost and hour and arrived at a cool 8:30 in Dublin. Already love it. The airport was huge and clean and everyone is sooooo nice and helpful. It's a huge difference from other European countries. We got on a double decker bus!!! EEEK. 

 

We are really excited because not only is this bus the coolest, it had wifi. WHAT?? That is so cool. You can be so productive on this thing. We planned our only full day in Dublin thanks to the list Owen Meadows (Ruths boyfriend) made for us. We stored our bags at the hostel and guess what?? Well turns out I am not perfect- shocking I know- and I booked the hostel for the following night. Out of the 10 places I booked for this trip it was the only one I messed up so that is an up right? Thank god it got worked out and we took the last 2 places in the whole hostel allegedly. We headed to grab some 2nd breakfast since we ate about 5 hours ago now. Afterwards we headed to Guiness. It was genius although Pilsner Urquell in Plzen, Czech Republic was way cooler. This brewhouse was more of a museum than a tour but we got a tasting and this cool smelling thing and then we got a free pint. So I can't really complain about anything now can I? You have to drink Guiness a certain way and no lie it makes it taste better. If you are curious just hit me up and I would be more than happy to teach you. Also, I have decided that I will be brewing my own beer in the very near future. I don't have a job or anything so why would I not just like accept it and do bum crafts? 

After we left the brewhouse we walked to Kilmainham Gaol. It was an innovative county prison built in the 1700s designed to reform prisoners to keep them separate from each other. After it was closed as a prison it was used to house Brittish soldiers and again later to house a party during the revolution. Today you can find art shows and concerts here. It had been well preserved and is full of rich history. The museum connected to it is very informative and interesting. I recommend doing this if you can when you visit Dublin. 

Katelyn and I regrouped at the hostel really quick and headed out to dinner at Bobos Gourmet Irish Burgers- Owen's pick. It was heavenly. Food here is definitely a priority and there is so much variety. I am raising my hands at this moment because I have never been so happy to see chinese take out and food that isn't fish with eyes still intact, pizza or pasta. Have I mentioned I love Ireland? The people are so wonderful, the food is amazing, the sights are gorgeous. Is it too good to be true?? Well the downside to it all is the weather. Its cold and rainy always. It is 11 degrees today and the sun is out currently. If you don't suspect rain definitely bring your rain jacket or umbrella anyway. It is going to happen. 

I should tell you that I have decided to switch to the metric system and celcius and military time. I may as well get on board with the majority of the world- it just makes more sense to be honest and it is so easy to understand. 

Been thinking a lot about careers and having more and more people suggest options to me. I definitely have to learn another language first. Again thinking German. This would open so many doors for me. No lie- the amount of jobs speaking 2 languages fluently opens up to you is insane. I feel mad that schools don't push it more while we are young and follow through with it as we grow up. I have truly missed out and I am upset about it. 

I have a lot of ideas to explore when I get home. I am actually looking forward to this next step and this huge leap. 

June 20th-26th- Croatia

I am doing this... a week of blog posts in one. Don't hate me, but Croatia has brought a slow down and a great relaxation.

June 20th- Plitvice Lakes

My favorite day. By far. Nothing beats this. The beauty is unreal- honestly it doesn't seem real. I have never experienced a calm like this. In nature and such a beautiful nature at that. It is a wonder of the world. I just felt like there was something powerful in the ground beneath me. It sounds wild I know but there is no way to describe the emotions coursing through my soul at that time. It reminded me that I need to hike more and appreciate the beauty of my home and the other nooks and crannies of this world we are a part of. 

We left the park around 2 and got on our bus to Split. When we arrived in Split we got a touch lost trying to find the hostel. Turns out he had emailed very detailed directions to Katelyn back in May with a map and everything but we had overlooked it. The hostel was small but perfect! Everyone was so nice and we met a bunch of really cool people. We didn't end up going out but we staying in and drank homemade Croatian moonshine and beer. The moonshine was like the devil going down- it smelled and tasted like nail polish remover which CANNOT be a good sign. However, we did have a good time and made some good friends. Our Scottish friend Rebecca even asked me to cut her hair for her. I have to tell you though- she had gotten drunk a few nights before and cut her own hair. Not just like a few inches. She litterally shaved one side and the back and left this angled piece on the top. It was a sick haircut- in a good way. Like it was brilliant on her but I cannot believe that she did it herself and drunk at that. Wellllll I guess upon closer look you could tell- there were 2 bald spots where the razor got a touch close to her scalp. Anyway, It was fun to cut her hair- like fixing it and I think I left it looking a lot better than when it started. 

June 21st- Split, Croatia

We had semi-planned to go around the old town with Rebecca and Nicola but they slept in a little later than we had planned. We set out to the beach with two new hostel arrivers- Hollywood and Rudy. We grabbed lunch and hit the "sand." It was more like gravel but none the less. After soaking up some rays and seeing more sea urchins than anyone should ever have to, we walked to the jumping cliffs. We really wanted to jump off of them (and by we I mean me) but when we got there there really weren't other people around and we were unsure if these were the cliffs we were told about. We just took in the beauty and moved on. We wanted to go to the viewpoints so that we could get some views of the city before we set off for the next place. We could see some viewpoints and thought we would walk. It turned out to be a 2 hour walk up to the panoramic view of the city. BUTTT it was a lovely day and a really nice hike. The views along the way were magnificent with water hitting the base of the cliffs pretty much everywhere you looked. Hundreds of sailboats specked the Adriatic Sea with the sun starting to set. We made it up 314 steps (Katelyn almost had an asthma attack- not good since we had no inhaler) and the view was worth it. It was beautiful. 

We made it back to the hostel around 7:45 and had just over an hour to shower and eat and make it to the pub crawl at 9. We made it about 20 minutes late and got started on the power hour- probably not the safest thing honestly, but people want their money's worth. This was by far the biggest bar crawl we had been to with probably about 50-75 people. We made friends with 5 guys from the UK who were there on holiday as well. We stuck with them for the rest of the night and had a blast!! Back home at the hostel Katelyn went to bed and I hung out with 2 guys from Canada who had arrived while we were out. I loved this hostel so much because it was so small and everyone had to be friends. We were in 3 different coed shared rooms and all shared a bathroom, but the quarters were close and everyone was so friendly. 

(yes, he is having a nip slip- when in Croatia right??)

June 22nd- Korcula

Our ferry left pretty early from Split so we were up and out by 8. We grabbed breakfast from the host's mother and it was seriously the best breakfast we have had in 6 weeks. We arrived just after noon and got to our perfectly located hostel- Maria's place. Maria owned it and she was the sweetest little lady. Probably in her late 70s or early 80s, she offered us juice and biscuits on our arrival and told us about her adventures in learning English. Easily the sweetest woman ever. Our room was perfect and had AC! AHH. The Hostel was in the old town walls and was maybe 2 minutes walking to the beach. We grabbed lunch and hit the beach. We wanted to swim so we climbed on the rocks to a ladder and jumped in and swam around 75 meters to the shore. It was lovely but the sea urchins haunted me the whole time. They are terrifying. After that we walked around the town and then ate our leftovers from lunch. 

June 23rd- Korcula

Tried to go to Lumbarda to the sand beaches but missed the last bus. We decided to stay in Korcula and go back to our main beach. We went shopping around too and I bought a bikini... WHAT?? Yeah it was odd. So for dinner we decided to try some fish. We had seen someone cleaning a fish by us at the beach earlier so we knew it would be fresh. So Maria had suggested this place (we think- she may have warned against it) and we went. Turns out you had to get like the whole fish (I guess this is a seafood thing) but we couldn't afford that so we go the Kanevic Fish plate. MISTAKE. It was squid and a prawn and some things we have NOOOOO idea what they were. I tried everything on the plate while trying not to think too much about it. It was mortifying and terrifying and wayyyyy expensive. Thank god it is over. 

June 24th- Korcula 

We got up and went to Lumbarda to get a taste of the sand beaches. The bus dropped us off in the middle of nowhere and we had to walk through some vineyards to get there. When we got there it was packed and tiny and we had to work to find a place to lay. The sand was micro tiny and was EVERYWHERE in a matter of seconds. We could swim out in to the water far and we stayed in for 30 minutes at a time treading water while we watched the boats go by. It was a beautiful day. I got pretty sunburned while I read an entire book.... We went to dinner when we got back and showered at this sweet little place in the alley near our place. We shared 2 karaffes of the homemade wine and stayed for 3 hours. We met a woman from California who talked to us for a while. She was sailing around from island to island for a few weeks with about 10 other people. She said a few things that resonated with me. First she said that "I am never happier than when I have a small bag of things." I loved it. Why? I can't explain it to you all here and now but it meant a lot to me and the way I want to live my life. I'm not going to feed you some bullshit about the unimportance of material possessions because sometimes that is all we have. I like that she said that and I agree because I can always choose what is in my small bag of things. She wished us good vibrations as she left and again I loved that. What a special way to bid someone adieuand how happy it left me.

Katelyn's chicken was a touch raw and I ate some which I am going to say is why I found myself sick about an hour after we left. We grabbed ice cream on the way home and headed to bed. Early bus the next morning. 

June 25th- Dubrovnik

The bus ride was bumpy and loud. I swear to you the driver had his top 40 on max volume and he kept taking phone calls over that. It was wild. It wasn't too long of a bus ride but the directions for our hostel were awful and we got super frustrated. We went to an address listed and there was no hostel there. So we called on my limited minutes and they could barely speak english. Eventually we had him come pick us up because we were hopelessly lost. At first we were mad that the directions were so poorly marked but then we met him and he was so old and sweet that we quickly forgave him and paid the full transfer fee anyway. I couldn't not. The room was so nice and they were super accomodating. The view is amazing and we are in a great location. The only down side is that it has been raining the whole time we have been here. We go settled around 5 and then ventured down to the old town to walk around and find dinner. We both agreed that we couldn't have pizza or pasta because we would die, so it was a sign that the first restaurant we came across was MEXICAN. This handsome handsome boy named Roberto showed us to our table and then our sweet sweet waiter brought us welcome shots. No one else at the restaurant got them I noticed but I loved it. It was the same Croatia moonshine but it was a little less strong. Katelyn couldn't stomach it but I seriously just knocked it back because it was free and I wanted to be polite. We spilt chicken fajitas and they were amazing. Bursting with flavor which is an uncommon thing here. Seriously very little flavor in all of these foods and it kills me. I am at the point in my trip where I am fixating on restaurants that I love- Surin, El Barrio, Taco Mama, Crestline Bagel, Nikkis- I need them all. We walked around town a little and KP grabbed her nightly Ice Cream and we walked the 300 plus stairs back to our hostel.

June 26th- Dubrovnik

We woke bright and early to beat all of the Cruise boaters to the wall. The city is surrounded by a wall and you can walk the length of it to get amazing views of the old town and the towers and the ocean. We did that for about 2 hours and then grabbed lunch and planned to go paddle boarding. I feel bad that the weather was so bad because Katelyn has been dying to go for weeks now. There was some under current in the water making it more dangerous than just the choppy waters that came with the rain. We opted for a glass boat tour instead and it was still very choppy. We got to see the coast and be on the water at least. Afterwards we moseyed around town in and out of shops before going back to the hostel to watch the USA v Germany game. Early night. We are off to Zadar tomorrow and then IRELAND! 

 

June 19th- Travel to Plitvice Lakes, Croatia

And then there were two. From Jersey to Turkey it was nice knowing you Michelle.

With our packs bigger than ever (mine having gone from 14kg to 20kg already) we set off for Croatia bright and early. To be honest with you I already wrote 4 paragraphs and then my phone froze and it deleted so I am less winded and less detailed. Apologies for having lost my humor to the giant abyss that is the cloud. 

Katelyn and I separate at security and go on to our gate to get to Croatia. We are pretty sure we have run into the National Turkish Women's basketball team based on the size of the women and the gear the are sporting. We notice one particular girl as we disembark the air craft in Zagreb, Croatia and she has to duck to get into the glass doors of the airport. She has to be over 7 feet tall. I wasn't even up to her elbow. Talk about a tall drink of water. So tall that all the ice will have melted by the time you make it to the bottom of the glass. 

[Please forgive me if I seem distracted- the US v Germany game is on right now. I am obviously a little behind in the blog entries.]

We get there and board our bus to the lakes. It is not a long bus ride, but it is really pretty. Picture mountains and desert at the same time. Cool right? Thats what we are doing. 

Our hostel was cool- we got a welcome shot which is a serious thing in Croatia come to find out. We walked to grab some dinner and then got an early zzzz so that we could start early with the lakes. 

June 18th- Istanbul, Turkey

Another beautiful day in Istanbul! We got up had breakfast and went to Topkapi Palace and Harem. It was a pretty big castle with an amazing view of the Bosphorus. Again poor so we didn't get the Audio Tour. We read here and there and picked up what we could but to be honest it was crowded. The jewels were cool- 80 carat diamond was a first. When we left there we went on a 2 hour boat tour of the bosphorus to see the European side as well as the Asian side of Istanbul. Did you know that Istanbul is the only city in the world that is on two continents? Pretty cool. It was beautiful to see the coast line with the stacked houses and the trees. They are like perfect. I can't describe them but they are a mix of cyprus and pine looks wise. 

We headed back after this to rest because at this point in the trip we are honestly exhausted. Katelyn and I went to tea time again. We went to an earlier dinner on the rooftop terrace of a restaurant that overlooks the Blue Mosque and the Bosphorus in the background. Gorgeous spot to eat delicious Turkish food. I got Turkish Baklava here. Not as good at Greek Baklava. It is made with pistachios which makes for an interesting flavor. I think what made it weird was the ice cream served with it. Which may have been mado. More on Mado soon. We walked down the street a ways and found some ice cream. It is like a street performance here. Mado is like made from goats milk and is thickened with the crushed up root of lychee. They play tricks with the cones and try to feed you the ice cream and are just silly. Let's pause for a second. He played some tricks with me with just a cone first and then when he prepared my actual ice cream he used a different cone. BUT he put back the cone I had been touching. Soooooo of course my thought process as I am eating MY SECOND dessert of the day is whether I think others' hands have touched my cone and how dirty they were. Immune system building at its finest....

I forgot to tell you that Katelyn had another dream last night. The kind where she wakes me up. This has happened about 7 times so far. She never wakes anyone else up. Just me. Anyway normally they are urgent- she thinks someone is in our night train car or that we are late for something, etc. This time though it was jibberish. "Jane... JANE." "Yes, Katelyn?" "I need to chsfhagfhs the chairs." " You what?" "I need to chatch the cherries" "You need to get the cherries?" "Yes, I need to catch the cherries if they are up here (grabbing in the air over her haid). If not it is fine." "Okay...."  All I can say about this discourse is that apparently introducing her to cherries was a life changing moment. 

A few things that have been on my mind:

PEPSI is sick. I have never had anything so gross. I mean I am obviously a coke fan but still I tried to give Pepsi a chance. It was a mistake. A huge mistake really. I had to throw it out after four sips. At one point I forgot I hated it so much and had resigned to stop drinking it until I found a trashcan. I actually spit my sip back down the straw. I couldn't even stomach it. 

Another thing is that picking a restaurant is a nightmare most times. It is work to please everyone. Also if I have to eat pasta or pizza again I will cry. It is everywhere here. I am not kidding. If we added all the pizza places in Birmingham together and multiplied by 3 there would be less than there are in each city here whether the population is 1,000 or 30,000.  

June 17th- Istanbul, Turkey

Blackout curtains should not be allowed in hotels. I mean not only does this place have ac, but it has blackout curtains and walls that aren't made of tissue paper. I could sleep for days. 

We woke at 9 and got the FREE breakfast. I am telling you what... they do it well here. It was a buffet with many many choices of jams and fruit and wait for it... A HONEYCOMB. It was bizarre.  We ventured out and walked to the Aya Sofia for our first attraction of the day. It was really cool inside but I am going to be honest and say money is tight so we opted out of the Audio Guide and didn't learn a single thing about the building except for the creation which really isn't enough to do it justice. Apologies to historians worldwide. We were hoping to go to the Blue Mosque next but it was closed for prayer time, so we jumped over to the Basilica Cistern. It may be hard for you to believe but this one was my favorite. It was huge with over 335 columns supporting the structure. The beauty was magnified in the dark pools of cool water spread through the entire thing. The low lit room was vast and oddly quiet for the amount of peoplw who were in there. At the Northwest corner were two columns with Medusa heads carved into the base. One was upside down and the other was sideways. It is said that the architect did this on purpose. The mythology associated with Constantinople is by far my main reason in wanting to visit this place, and therefore my favorite part about the sites. After we finished here we went back to the Blue Mosque. My lanta is this place a thing of beauty. It was huge while at the same time being small and cozy. The mosaic work is like something you have never seen. It was imperfect and therefore perfect. The light was reflected beautifully. The carpet was lush and inviting and every column had a gorgeous marble washing fountain. The details make this town the beauty that it is. The landscape details, the architectural details, the asthetic details. The list goes on.

As we were leaving there was a young man laying under the shade of a tree and he called to us to tell us that he thought we were "so sexy and so funny." I am honored. He never even heard a joke and he thinks I am funny. #Swoon

We headed to the Grand Bazaar next to make a full day out of it. Michelle stopped in to get Turkish Delight somewhere. I honestly thought I would hate it but as the man was feeding it me (yes, feeding me. He wouldn't have it any other way) I realized I love it! She got her box and we moved on into the market. First stop, rug store. Do we want some tea? Juice? Nothing? You don't even have to buy anything to get these drinks. I love tea but I declined. The rugs were amazing and gorgeous and hand done. They oozed quality and originality. I wanted one. Badly. I will when I am furnishing a house. So I opted instead for a handmade pillow cover. Its gorgeous and perfect for my style and the apartment I have designed in my head. Thats a real thing- the decorator in me is begging for my own canvas. 

I stepped across the way to purchase these cool handpainted bowls to accompany the handcarved box I got in Romania. So wordly this apartment will be. 

We meandered through the market stopping in some places. Everyone is so kind- mostly because they want you to buy something but also because they are so happy to have visitors and meet new people. A boy (I mean boy) asked for Katelyn's Whatsapp so that he could talk to her. He was in love. She is quite exotic here with her light hair and blue eyes. Next stop: scarf shop. Home of the ever handsome and ever charming Turkish boys who loved us as well as a sale. He was massaging my shoulders and tying scarves in crazy ways around my neck. Compliments were flying rampant and prices were coming down lower and lower. Katelyn got a great deal and Michelle had already purchased her scarf, but I was left and they weren't going to drop it. I don't need a scarf. I don't wear them. I don't have a use for things like this in Alabama. But still they pushed on and it was clear I wasn't getting out until I bought one. He wanted 200 lira, I walked at 50. You're welcome Jordan; I hope you like it. but don't worry he also got my number so he could take us to the disco- As if. 

Stumbled home poor and sweaty to find the comfort of the down pillows and cool satin sheets. Katelyn and I rested until tea time and then went down for some afternoon snacks (aka lunch at 5 pm) and then napped until dinner. We went right around the corner and I had a traditional turkish meal called "Sultan's Delight" which was delicious. For dessert we bopped into a Turkish Delight shop and bought a few cubes for our pleasure. Good day.