Lou Got Baptized!

First and foremost I just wanted to say, with a little help from Mike, CONGRATULATIONS LOUISA!!!!
(Mike helping me congratulate Louisa)

I guess I still have one reader out there (thanks Anne!) so I guess I will continue for a little longer. Plus I still have some photos I still haven't posted from my trip but who knows when I will get around to that.

I am still having some issues with my computer. Namely I am almost certain it hates me. Originally the computer would freeze up and not show anything except for the desktop's background picture. But when I told Mike about my problem I turned it on and the computer decided that it would boot up with more programs working. Not completely working mind you, just enough to make a liar out of me. Since then I have been battling with the virus with no success. In the mean time I can put up a few of the photos I got at my favorite niece's baptism today. I didn't get photos of the actual baptism because I got to be the official camera man. You will have to refer to Mike or Kayleen's blog for those photos. But I did get some embarrassing pictures of Mike and that pretty much made week.

Here is Lou with her parents and god-parents.

The happy family after the baptism.

The other half of quite possibly the greatest photographer/videographer combo ever (and Garrett)

Fun with a Virus!

I really have been meaning to post some more pictures on here but there has been a slight problem. My computer has a virus. It's a pretty vicious one at that. When my computer turns on all I get to see is the desktop picture and thats all it does. I have managed to salvage my pictures off the computer but I have been trying to fix it instead of posting pictures. I am about to the point where I am swearing vengeance on the virus creator so who know how much longer it will take for me to post more photos. Although I am not sure if people are still reading my blog so I am not sure pictures are worth it.

Scotland!

Finally there is one country ahead of the others. Here are my pictures from Scotland.

Okay, this picture was not taken in Scotland. But I am including it because I wanted to show it to Preston and because I took it on the way to Preston.

This picture is for a little compare and contrast. This is in Scotland near Glasgow.

This was taken near Glasgow the next morning. We got a little snow storm the night before and it gave a nice little blanket of snow over everything.

Here is the castle in Edinburgh. By the time we got here there was no more snow left on the ground. It was a pretty warm day in Scotland.

This is the view from the front of the castle. I thought the mountain was sort of cool so a took a few pictures of it. That is my way of warning you I uploaded a few of them.

Eric and the sub deacon. I think they look a lot alike.

This is a view of that awesome mountain from Mary Queen of Scots window.

This is a recreation of the scene when the Scots found their crown jewlels. If you haven't heard about this, the Scots lost their crown jewels. Unlike the Irish, the Scots then found them 100 years later.

Here is Eric warming himself by a fire in Mary Queen of Scots bed room. I am starting to think that all fireplaces should be at least 5 feet tall.

Eric walking in front of the Scottish army memorial. Every Scot that has died in battle has his/her name written in a book in this building.

Eric inspecting one of the cells for soldiers who break the law. I was going to lock him in there but they don't keep the locks on the doors anymore. Oh well.

The barracks inside the castle. I am not sure but the cell may have been an improvement or not.

I hope you can make it out but that is at American flag scratched into the door. Edinburgh castle housed rebels from America during the revolutionary war.

Another American graffiti. It is the 'VICTORY' in the door. Below it is a little harder to make out but it says 1781.

Here I am looking over the city of Edinburgh from the castle walls.

Here I am with a cool mountain in the background.

I warned you about the mountain.

Only the best of American culture makes its way over to Europe. As evident by the side of the tour bus.

Sunrise in Glawsow as I was leaving for Ireland. A little sad and really happy at the same time (because I was on my way to Ireland). Scotland is always a fun place to go.

The is a gun that goes off at 1 everyday at the castle to signal the ships about the changing tides. I got a video if it. The video is a little long because I didn't cut out the first half where nothing happens.

Switzerland Revisited

I was waiting to see if people would vote a little more so I didn't have to pick which country I should post pictures from next. But a lack of voting has forced me to pick it myself. To punish those of you who cared I picked one of the ones with the least amount of votes; Switzerland.

This is one of the first pictures I took in Europe. It was a church I passed on the way to Walchwil.

After our stay in Slovakia Eric and I are trying to stay aware of all the laws for the cities we are in. So while in Walchwil we did not endanger or prejudice anyone.

This is a little bit of the aftermath the carnival festival left over in Luzern. Luzern is one of the places in Switzerland to go for carnival.

This bridge is one of Luzern's main tourist atractions. The bridge was rebuilt after burning down a few years ago.

The castle on the hill in the background it has a little bit of interesting recent history. Michael Jackson tried to buy the castle but the owner refused to sell it to him.

This is my first view of the city of Walchwil. The town is across the lake there.

This is one of the mountains surrounding the city of Walchwil. I forget the name of it but in english it means grandmother. I think...

This is the house my grandpa was born in. It's a little bit better picture than the one previously posted.

Here I am with Christoph in the bar our great-great-grandfater used to run. This was my last night in Switzerland but I am deffinately going to go back.

This is Franz and I at the local bar celebrating the last day of carnival. Behind is the 40 person band playing some music.

I figured a video would probably be the best way to experience the band. It's essentially a marching band but that is what all carnival bands are in Switzerland. This band is on the small side but it was still a lot of fun to hear.

Bridget, I picked up a couple rocks from Blarney castle and a couple rocks from a little park outside St. Patrick's cathedral in Dublin. You can either one.

PHOTOS!!!!

Sorry about the order. It is just a bigger pain trying to get these in sequential order than its worth. These are just some of my pictures from Ireland.

I saw this while walking down an alley in Dublin. Just thought it was funny how the church and brewery were positioned.

Here I am at the Burren in county Claire. It's a field of rocks. But still really cool.

This is a park in Dublin. It was nice to see the first signs of spring coming. But a little sad since I now have to leave once it starts.

At the cliffs of Moher. I tried to get a shot of myself and the cliffs but must have looked a little pathetic doing it because a woman said that she could get the shot for me.

A better shot with the cliffs of Moher.

Here I am inside one of the towers outside Blarney castle. I am perfecting the timer on the camera.

This is inside my hostel in Cork. The Bru Hostel. Not sure if you can make out the first rule but I can guarantee you I did not break that rule.

This is one of the Tower houses in county Claire. It is one of the best preserved ones so it is the one that all the tour buses stop at. I took the picture through a whole in the wall in the castle. I thought it made a nice little border. That way I didn't have to photo shop in my own.

This is one of my favorite signs I saw in Galway. Not sure what the children do here but I guess you have to be cautious of them.
That is the Blarney stone right there. If you need me to narrow it down let me know.

This is Blarney House. It is right by Blarney castle but I couldn't get in here because they close it for the off season. Guess when I go back it will have to be in the summer.

Here I am on my way to the Blarney stone. I had decided to use the Survivor Man style of photography and set up cameras in front and behind me then backtrack to get the camera.

Here I am in front of the Blarney House. It took way to many shots to get this picture. Lucky no one was around. I took a half dozen pictures or so.
My first view of the Blarney castle.

I guess the best way to do the photos will be to just do a little poll and post whatever country has the most votes. I still have some more or Ireland that's why Ireland will be on the poll.

Home For a Rest

I finished my European adventure with a few days in London. Monday I mostly just walked around the town. It was a nice walk as London has a bunch of little parks to go through and the weather in London was really nice.

I have been looking for yarn and fabric for my sisters and I sort of dropped the ball while in Ireland so I wanted to make sure I got them something here. I found a store online and then figured out how to get there by subway. While changing station I was walking to my next station and a voice comes over the intercom and says, "there is an emergency, will all passengers please exit the station immediately." This message was then repeated over and over again. I talked to a guy at the entrance and he said that it was probably something really minor like a sandwich or a bag left behind. Eventually I found the store the store was a little on the high end as far as stores go. The store had a rug there for 18,500 pounds and a dress for 550 pounds. So in the end I failed in getting any fabric for my sisters. Oh well, I think I can get over it.

Tuesday (St. Patrick's day) I started the day with a free walking tour. I like the walking tours because they give you a chance to get a lot of the history of the city and you also get a better feel of the area as you have to walk around. After the tour I ran over to Tower Hill to try and make it to the Grim Reaper tour, another free tour. This was a tour that would take you to Whitechapel and take you through the streets that the Jack the Ripper killings took place at. Unfortunately I just missed the tour. So I walked around the Tower of London and then went over to Whitechapel just to see what the area looked like. I suppose I will just have to go back to London so I can go on the actual tour.

Eric and I then met up at the Portugeese church for mass (remember it's St. Patrick's day). It's a little weird how the catholic churches are done in London. It seems as though each church is for a certain ethnicity.This was the Portugeese church, by our hostel was the Italian church. The time for mass came and past without any mass starting. We looked at the schedule and realized they had cancelled mass here and had to go over to St. Patricks (the Irish chruch). We made it for the second half of mass and got some blessed shamrocks. Afterwards I went to a little bar that offered live music. I figured that it would be Irish music being St. Patrick's day and all but I was wrong. So I tried the little Irish pub close to our hostel for some music. The first song was Irish but after that no such luck.

Wednesday I went home. The question I keep on getting is, "Are you glad to go home?" I guess I can just answer that now. It was great to see so much of Europe. I really enjoyed the whole trip and was a little upset to leave. But I really am glad to go home. Being away from family and friends was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Just the occasional email or instant message conversation just doesn't really cut it. I look forward to going back to Europe but its great to be home.

Goodbye Ireland

Yesterday I left Ireland and made the trip over to London, my final city on my trip. I went back to the hostel I stayed at last time I was in Ireland, so that means no pictures until I get home.

Thursday I made the trip up to Dublin for some of the St. Patrick's day festival as I am going to be in London for the actual day. Most of the things to do for the festival start closer to the evening so on Friday morning I took a historical walking tour of Dublin. The guide was really knowledgeable as he was a history graduate from Trinity college. I guess this is what history majors do for a living. He gave a good history of Ireland's struggle for independence and talked a little bit about the violence that has been going on in Northern Ireland in the past few weeks. (Not sure if anyone heard but a group called the RIRA and CIRA both have killed some people in the North.)

I went back to my hostel to write out some postcards and was met by some of my roommates. They are students from Indiana on spring break. They came into my room at about 4 PM all of them drunk. They had come in to sleep it off and then go back out and get black out drunk that night. I was a little upset they didn't extend an invitation to me but I was able to find some other things to keep me busy.

I hiked up to northern area of Dublin Saturday morning to try and see the grave of Michael Collins. I saw that the grave yard was somewhere north but forgot to check the distance. In the end I didn't find it and later found out that the graveyard was a couple kilometers from where I was. I did find a capuchin church on my way though. The alter in the church was designed by Padraig Pearse's father. I thought that was sort of cool.

That afternoon I met up with my friends who were studying in Florence but were on spring break in Ireland. We went over to Christ Church cathedral and saw the mummified cat and mouse. (Jennifer, I agree it's probably not as cool as a heart, but at least you get to see it. Chopin's heart is inside the pillar so you don't get to see anything) We walked by St. Patrick's cathedral but chose not to go in. We had stepped inside and the church seemed to have been made into a giant gift shop. I wasn't looking forward to paying 6,50 € to go into a gift shop. Afterwards we went over to the Guiness storehouse and took a tour through it. There I got the chance to pour a pint of Guiness. For those of you who haven't seen it, there is a special way to pour a Guiness. You don't just fill up the glass. While there Ireland was playing Scotland in rugby so I watched a bit of that. It was a good day as Ireland won 22-15.

That evening there was a ceili so we all went to that. (I believe I gave a rough description of a ceili before so I am not doing it again) It was held at the Ireland Institution which is basically a Irish culture center. When we got in there the people all started talking to us in gaelic. After convincing them we knew no gaelic (although I can say 'what stinks' in gaelic, I refrained from using it here) they told us where to go in english. It was interesting when they would call out the steps for the ceili, they descibed them all i gaelic. Instead of skip one two three, they would just say it in gaelic. Afterwards we went to a few pubs and I introduced the Florence crowd to the wonderful drink of Irish cider. We ended up at O'Sheas, the first pub I went to when I came to Ireland and finished the evening there with some good Irish music, as well as a few Johnny Cash songs thrown in for the Americans.

For Sunday mass we all went to a church Eric and I had come across last time we were in Dublin, St. Kevin. It was a beautiful church but I had failed to see that all the masses here were in latin. That, and they use the pre-vatican II service (with the blessing from the Bishop so it was a legit mass). It was an interesting experience to see how much the service has changed in such a short time. Afterwards I had to collect my stuff to make it to the ferrys to go to Wales and then bus and train to London.

Thats where I am now and I probably won't update this until I get back home. So there is a good chance I will be posting a lot of pictures this Thursday. Until then I will probably be hanging out in the White Chapel area.

Galway to Cork

Ask and you shall receive I guess. We took a day trip out to the cliffs of Moher and the weather was actually decent. The sun would occasionally shine so it was nice. Our tour guide told us that it rains twice a week in Galway, once lasting 4 days and the other only lasts 3 days. I guess we just got it on the right day. I would post some of the pictures I took but I can't plug my camera into the computer. Guess I will have to do that later. I can go into more detail with pictures as it would be a little easier having visual aids.

An interesting note about Galway is that it is the center for real traditional Irish music. Except in Galway they refer to it as trad music. So pretty much every pub I went to had a traditional band going. As you walk down the streets you can usually hear one of the bands playing so it is easy to find them out. I think my favorite pub was the Quay. It had a pretty good band playing and the atmosphere of the pub was unique and interesting. On our last night in Galway the band kept on getting requests from some inebriated soccer fans to play the song 'Galway Girl.' The band eventually gave in but you could tell they were not happy about giving into playing this one. I was just happy because I have had a streak of hearing that song just about every night since getting into Ireland. One night I heard it twice in the same bar in the span of about 20 min.

Today we then took the train down to Cork. We got in late in the afternoon so the Blarney castle would have been closed by the time we made it up there. So the plan is to go up there tomorrow morning so we can kiss the blarney stone. After that Eric and I will be parting ways for a few days. Eric will be going off to Wales and I will go to Dublin for at least some of the St. Patrick's day festival. I guess the real Irish thing to do for St. Patrick's day is to go to New York, Boston, or Las Vegas (I was told this by an Irishman) but I think Dublin will be nice. From what I have looked up it seems like Dublin has the biggest celebration out of all of the cities in Ireland.

Also a quick note for Bridget, I am not going to make it down to county Kerry so either I can try and steal the Blarney stone (which may be more difficult than I am anticipating) or I can get a rock from either Cork or Dublin.

Ireland has pubs!

On my first night in Ireland I hit up a little pub close to our hostel called O'Shea's. They had two people playing music that night, a guitar player and a accordion player. While there a few people started dancing. They were dancing various 8 hands. After a little while the guy who seemed to be the leader of those dancing started telling everyone they had to dance in the next dance as it was a big ceili dance and very easy. So Eric and I, along with some girls visiting from Germany, got pulled into dancing. The picture of me dancing would be from this night. (Just to note, I am trying to order the picutres but they take forever to load and don't want to risk having to reload them so you will have to bare with me for a bit)

We went out into Dublin on Friday and saw the General Post Office. That would be what the picture of me in from of a building with pillars would be. It was incredible to be able to walk up to the building and put my fingers into the bullet marks in the columns that are still there. We saw a few other sites in Dublin such as St. Stevens Green and we walked by the Guiness storehouse. That night we went back to O'Shea's and this night they had ulian pipes (Irish bagpipes) and a fiddle as well as someone singing. This night was also amusing as the bartender seemed to hate just about everyone. When someone would order a drink he would mutter something under his breath about the particular customer. I met a guy from Austria who couldn't understand the bartender when he was making one such comment. I decided that I would try and keep the peace and just told him something a polite bartender would be saying in such a situation.

Saturday we took the train over to Kilkenny. We walked through the town and saw most of the major tourist sites in a few hours. I am going to skip over the rest of Saturday because I am not loading any pictures from that day and we mostly just walked around the town. Sunday we watched the local team take on Wicklow in a game of gaelic football. The match was a little one sided to say the least. The score when we left (we left about 10 min early) the game was 4-20 Wicklow to 0-1 Kilkenny. (For those of you who don't know how gaelic football scores are done, the scores are goals-points so in Wicklows case they had 4 goals and 20 points.) I tool a video of Kilkenny's only point so you can see a little bit of gaelic football. Probably not enough for a real taste but you get something. It was hard to sit through such a beating and I was at most of the cougar football games so I have seen this sort of thing before. Just not this bad. The stadium had about 40-50 fans in it and I think besides Eric and myself, there were only a couple other Kilkenny fans. We stilled cheered them on but it looks like it wasn't enough.






Today I headed up to Galway and walked around the town a bit. I had met a woman from Spain who is living in Galway and she gave me a few suggestions for pubs and places to visit while in Galway so we will be looking into those tonight. But I also asked her about the weather up her and her only comment was that "it's shit." I was a little optimistic that it wouldn't be that bad but we left Kilkenny and the sun was out. When we got to Galway it is cloudy, gray, and raining. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little better.