These Titles are Quite the Bern to my Originality

Jus some homies chillin' on a mountain

Castles and stuff

Can't really remember if I've actually been through any of Bern (in Switzerland for those that don't know) in the last couple of days or not, but I was struggling with a title so there we are. I was going to do something along the lines of, ¨This Place Sure Gets my Vaud¨ (Vaud being another Swiss canton) but yeah I think I'm starting to struggle a little bit.. So I am currently residing in Switzerland again, in Yens, which is in Vaud, with my homeboy Patrick and his family, two students who are also temporarily staying at this house and of course I can't forget Rusty the trusty dog. It has been a fun past couple of days! To be honest, it is quite nice being away from all the hustle and bustle of all the big cities once more. I arrived here on the 29th at aboot 11:00AM and for those of you that read my previous [and short] entry Pretty Fly for a Stupid Guy, you'll know that I booked my flight on the wrong month. But enough about that. On the second day that I was here Patrick drove me out to Thun where he showed me around a little bit, and pointed out all his army service related areas and which building was for what and what the different army outfits meant. It was quite different to see being from Canada where army service is not mandatory. Its interesting that such a neutral country as Switzerland still has obligatory time of service - however now I am getting into politics and I'm sure there's a million other blogs out there about all of that. We had originally planned on spending the night in Thun, however decided to keep going and find a spot nearer the alps. We (Patrick) looked at the map and decided to head to the small city, municipality, district, canton ((?) I don't even know anymore) of Brig which is located in Southern Switzerland near Italy on the other side of the alps. To get there however you need to get through the alps, but the super sophisticated GPS system we were using took us to this train station where you pay for the ticket, drive your car onto this train, then sit in your car whilst it takes you underneath the mountains through a very dark tunnel for about 8-10 minutes.

Artsy photo of the train ride

This was actually really cool, I don't think I have even been in a tunnel that long, or that dark, and especially not whilst still sitting in your car and moving at the speed that the train was. Before going on we both had no idea whether we were going in the right direction or not, or whether we were waiting in the correct area. But it all turned out alright, and luckily we were not the first in line, but just behind the first vehicle, so we just followed their lead.

Nature calling?

Making our way up the mountain

On the other side of the train we were already in such a beautiful area of Switzerland with mountains all around us. Once we reached Brig we were contemplating whether to pitch a tent somewhere outside, sleep in the car, or find a campsite somewhere. Being the spoiled individuals that we are, we decided to just find a campsite. The first one we checked out seemed nice, but the only space they had available was this one hut with 8 beds lying RIGHT next to one another, it smelled bad, there were all sorts of dead insects in the covers of the bed, the lighting was awful, and it just felt like an all round bad place to spend the night, even for the 15 franc it would have cost us. So we kept looking. The second spot we found is where we decided to crash for the night. But that is not what we did when we got there, because honestly, what would be the point in that. No, we took our dinners and several beers up the mountain and found a really nice view where we ate, and progressively got more intoxicated. Looking back at it now, it seems like a terrible idea really, however the experience and memory is totally worth all that potential risk of falling off a 50 meter cliff right next to us. Let me tell you though, the view was incredible! I wish I was able to upload some photos to this blog from the ones I took from my phone, however my phone and laptop don't seem to get along very well. Also the pictures never do it justice, especially after hyping up the spot so much. So just imagine nice mountains, a mediocre sandwich, good beers, great company, a warm breeze, lots of rocks, and a small city where from where we were everybody looked like ants. Yup, life really isn't so bad. Also something that I thought was very amusing, was the fact that in this small town, they had an outdoor ice rink, and it was being used by like 9 people at one point. Darn it, I thought I left ice hockey and its Canadian-ness back in Canada. I can't seem to get away from our stereotypes regardless where I go. But I figured since the Canucks are now out of the playoffs, this was a good alternative to watch.

Patrick in the nail polish section
(He'd kill me if he realizes I put
this up here haha)

Several beers in. Still plenty to go

The morning after we ate breakfast and drove back to Yens. There isn't really much I can say about all that, because I was asleep for the majority of the ride (sorry Patrick). It rained a lot, and we passed a few cows and sheep. That same day we got back it was still pissing cats and dogs outside, but I suggested we go for a run - more as a joke initially. Patrick however was very keen on the idea, and that is just what we did. We went for a run in the pouring rain, through some farm land and past some cows into the forest and back to the house again. Seriously people, go do stuff like this! You feel so incredibly alive when you get absolutely drenched past the point of caring and you're out of breath and all you really want to do is lie down. But if you keep pushing, THAT is where its at. Stop making excuses and go do things! I sometimes need to jog my memory (see what I did there?) about this fact, but traveling has really helped me solidify things.
Today I woke up a little bit late, but Patrick and myself did manage to get in a few games of airsoft and now I'm back in the house just chilling writing things to myself and anybody who is still taking the time of day to read these entries.
What's next? That's a good question. I am in Europe until the 14th, and am flying out of the Brussels airport. So I'm thinking I will stay in Switzerland until the 7th or 8th then either take a bus or a train or a flight or a ride (whatever's cheapest really) to the Netherlands and hang around there until the 14th. Luckily my flight is at night because to be honest I'm not so keen on spending that much time again in Brussels. We just didn't really vibe that well. As much as I hate/love to say it, there are still SO many places I would have liked to go on this trip and would still like to go to, but I just wasn't able to do it this time around. But I suppose that gives me a good excuse to potentially come back in the future?
Ciao pour maintenant.

This silly things wouldn't leave me alone and kept following me

Hitchhikers Guide to Galway

So I broke my hitchhiking virginity (for a lack of a better way of putting it) on April 27th, 2015 in good ol' Ireland. I (and hopefully not too many of my hostel roommates) woke up in the morning from my alarm clock at about 7:00 and hit up the all you can eat/drink breakfast in the hostel kitchen - soooooo much cereal and toast and coffee. I said goodbye to a few roommates and hit the road super caffeinated - first stop the bus stop to make my way to the outskirts of the city where it would (so I heard) be easier to hitch a ride. I took the 25B bus direction Adamstown 9 stops all the way to Lucan Road (The Oval) where the highway seemed to start, direction West. I asked the driver to let me know when the stop was, but he didn't seem to be all too familiar with the route, so I counted the stops on my fingers and got off when it seemed to make sense. I walked along the highway a little ways and stuck my thumb out at exactly 11:00AM. I stood there for a good 20 minutes with no real luck and started to have second thoughts about this whole idea. I figured maybe if I walk back a little bit in the direction of the gas station I would perhaps have better luck. This was exactly the case. Within about 5 minutes of having my thumb in the air, this Irish lady stopped and asked where I was headed. I told her Galway, but anywhere closer to that destination would help. I was hoping to make it to the next town/city on the way which I thought would be Kinnegad. Luckily enough she lived there but told me I would have better luck catching a ride from this one truck stop where traffic didn't travel to fast and where lots of people drove through. We got there in about 15 minutes and she let me off at the stop where a Russian gentleman named Nicholas took a lot of interest in my travels and offered me a free coffee. I spoke to Nicholas for about 15 minutes about life, travel, politics, work and food before sticking out my thumb again to try and make it further along my journey. I stood there for a little while and one car stopped - which ignorantly enough I thought was for me - but alas the guy was only stopping for one of Nick's coffees and sandwiches. A couple of minutes later another fellow stopped and again I had high hopes it was for me. Originally he had stopped for grub as well but he asked me where I was headed and told me if I was willing to wait for him to eat he would definitely take me to the next town on the way to Athlone. I gladly obliged and the kind gentleman took me to a decent spot where he thought I would have better luck catching a ride. He was an electrician of sorts and was actually on the clock, so him giving me a ride was fantastic! He even mentioned something when driving through one small town that one of the Jonas Brothers was from there, I told him I really couldn't care less about that - it just kind of came out of my mouth and I was afraid I had maybe offended him. But he chuckled and told me that he didn't either. 

My hitchhiking route

My next piece of ground I stood on with my thumb out was a slightly smaller road than all the others so far, and it seemed that it had gotten a lot colder and windier. Luckily enough, however, this was also the place where I probably got picked up the fastest from all of my spots. My next chauffeur was a Latvian woman who said she was happy to see me stand next to the road because it reminded her of her hitchhiking days and told me she totally understood what it was like. She was very friendly about it all, and told me that if it wasn't for the fact that she had children and a family as well now, she would still love to hitchhike again.She wasn't entirely sure where to drop me off and what my best bet would be, but she told me what she did know and gave me walking directions to where she thought would be a good spot. Although she was right, it was indeed a good spot, I think she underestimated how far away it really was. I had to walk along the highway with traffic zooming by me for about 40 minutes with both of my backpacks and my records I had picked up along my travels in my arm. This wasn't really so bad, but I didn't really know how much longer I would have to walk. I eventually reached Exit 13 which was the one she told me to go to. I didn't even bother trying to hitch on the main highway because traffic was going much too fast, and there were several signs I ¨blindly¨ strolled past that said that pedestrians were not allowed alongside the highway. This would be the part where if I got stopped I'd pretend to only speak Dutch and really hope the officer isn't also a Dutchman or Dutchwoman. Regardless to say I was never stopped and eventually made it to the little town that Exit 13 led into. The directions the Latvian woman gave me weren't exactly accurate but I was able to make sense of it all. I decided that just in front a gas station would be my best choice to try and catch a car ride. This was one of the points where I was really starting to wonder what the hell I was actually doing here. It took some time for my next driver to stop, I was hungry, my coffee was starting to wear off, my hands (especially my thumb) were getting numb, I was tired, my shoulders hurt from the weight of my backpacks, and I didn't really know exactly where I was. But I was not giving up! I had come too far. 

Still going in the right direction

..soon enough a very kind Irish gentleman stopped and offered me a ride to the next town I was headed which if memory serves me correctly was Ballinasloe. I'd also like to take this moment here to mention that when people driving in their cars indicate that they are continuing on and not actually giving me a ride by pointing forward, to be extremely confusing. Several times I thought somebody was stopping up ahead (hence why they were pointing), and I would turn around with a big smile on my face because it seemed like my next ride had finally arrived. However like 5 or 6 people did this and just continued on. Maybe they were just messing with me in which case that's just not very friendly at all.
Where was I? Oh yes kind Irish gentleman giving me a ride. So this man's accent was quite thick and he talked at altered volumes and speeds which made it slightly difficult to always understand what he was saying, and at one point I had him talking about country music which I don't know the first thing about. Not that I necessarily have anything against it, or that I don't respect the genre of music, I simply just don't know anything about it other than that I like a few Johnny Cash songs. Anyhow, he keeps asking me if I know any of these Canadian country singers and I felt kind of bad saying no like 4 or 5 times in a row, because he was getting quite excited simply talking about them, so I just started saying things like ¨oh yeah that name rings a bell¨, or ¨I know the name but not really his/her music¨. I figured that I could just start being super pretentious about 90's hip-hop music or 50/60s jazz musicians, but I did after all enjoy the fact that I had a free ride and didn't want to do anything to spoil it. He was also very opinionated about the Irish government and politics and once I got him going on that, all I had to do was sit back and listen to him rant, which saved me from doing any of the talking. I also think I should mention that this was without a doubt, the messiest vehicle I had ridden in, not only just in my hitchhiking day, but probably in any ride ever that I have gotten in my life. But a free ride's a free ride right?
Come to think of it, I don't think he dropped me off in Ballinasloe but it was another small town/city/area/suburb/whateveryouwanttocallit which was along the way and this would be my last location where I had to stick my thumb in the air. I was getting so close, but I still had a ways to go to Galway. I waited around for a little while but not all too long before a Polish man named Lucas picked me up in his car. I opened the passenger door and out came the sounds of Notorious BIG. I knew right away this would be a good ride. Lucas and I spoke a bit about what we were currently doing for work and school and all that good stuff. Lucas had studied music/sound engineering or something along those lines and this was exciting for me because it is something I have been glancing at as a potential future study subject. He was telling me that it was hard for him to find work in this area, and was saying that if I do go back to school when back in Vancouver that I should take courses as opposed to general studies. Say what you want about that, everybody has their own opinions, but I think it is good to hear what different people have to say, and this was one of the reasons I came on this trip in the first place. And I feel that only the individual can really know what is best for him/her. Anyhow I talked with Lucas some more, and he was telling me of his current work which was kind of being a salesman for this very good alternative energy drink called John Lemon (loving bad puns, I already liked this drink before trying it). He gave me one to try (which was very good) and told me that he would take me all the way to Galway if I was okay with him stopping at a few locations along the way to go into some cafes and restaurants to deliver some of these drinks. I told him that was fantastic and also much too generous of him, but he insisted. He later told me that he was 29 years old and just had a baby girl who is currently 3 months old. Lucas was just in general such a genuine friendly human being and a very good final chauffeur to have on this whole experience. As I was getting out of his car in Galway, he noticed that I was carrying around some vinyl. This seemed to impress him, and he told me of his collection before saying, ¨keep it real brotha¨ and giving me a firm handshake. I simply replied with, ¨heck yeah man¨.
So quick summary. 1) took bus from Dublin to Lucan Road (The Oval). 2) walked around for a bit trying to find optimal hitchhiking pickup spot then got a ride to somewhere close to Kinnegad. 3) got a ride to Kinnegad. 4) made at least halfway to Athlone. 5) made it to Athlone. 6) veered off of my planned route little and made it somewhere close to Ballinasloe. 7) got a ride which I forgot to write about beforehand to somewhere outside of Athenry. 8) got my final ride to Galway. 9) arrived at my hostel at about 6:30PM (18:30). I've already gotten the order of events and the exact locations and names mixed up a little bit, but that pretty accurately describes my day.
What did I learn from all of this? Well let me just start by saying that I was very nervous to try hitchhiking, especially in a foreign country where I did not know the bus routes at all. But this Europe trip for me is all about trying new things and pushing the limits of my comfort zone. I don't think I would have done it, but several people I know really pushed me to the idea (respectfully of course - for the most part :p) and I can't say thank you enough! It really opened up my mind a lot, and it made me realize certain things about myself and others. Not that I am a cynic per say, but I am often not very fast to trust people, or not when it comes to them driving me places where I ma not be able to get out if I need to. Thus I sometimes catch myself making very unfair judgments about people before really even giving them a chance. So if this can at times be my state of mind, how can I expect anybody to stop for a complete stranger on the road who is carrying a load that is much too heavy? How is that fair? But having hitchhiked, it really put me in check - it was a good reminder I guess you could say. The reminder that I need to be more open minded and not really care that much what other's perceptions of me are or what my perceptions are of others, because when I let go of all of that, magic happens. This may sound corny as all heck, but really though, I do mean it. It has also taught me and really solidified the idea that it is okay to get out of my comfort zone more often. It is okay to make mistakes. It is okay to look like a complete fool. It is okay if things don't happen right away. It is okay if things don't happen the right way. Things are okay. Sometimes all I need to do is just slow down and take it all in. Slow down talk to the truck stop guy selling coffee and sandwiches. Slow down and find a square foot of shade to eat lunch in because my feat are sore from walking. Slow down and look at the sights. Slow down and listen to the sounds. Slow down and smell the smells. Why are we always in such a rush? I could have taken a bus to Galway and been there in about 2.5 hours - if that. But would I have experienced the same things I did when hitchhiking? Absolutely not (or I highly doubt it). Then again, maybe I would have met a good friend on that bus ride, but hey this way I met at least 7. What I'm trying to say is, do things differently. Try things, but be responsible. I have been letting myself get stuck in cycles for a while and it is, in my opinion, more often than not, not a great thing to be in. Go do things, go life life! Even if it means inconveniencing yourself or your pride, or your honour. I guarantee you you will learn and experience something phenomenal.

Pretty Fly For a Stupid Guy

I booked my flight to Geneva on May 29th, not April 29th. I was able to change it at the airport, but it cost me 58 euro. I'm an idiot. That is all.

I Couldn't Have Liked Those Cliffs Any Mohor

CLIFFS!

Before I talk about my experience hitchhiking from Dublin to Galway, I will first share my tales of Dublin and Galway and the Cliffs of Mohor - yes I've had an exciting last couple of days. So where do I start? Dublin? Long story short Dublin was fantastic. But long story long: my time in Dublin was a lot of fun. I explored a little bit and saw some parks, streets, pubs, went on a literary pub crawl (yes that's a thing), ate some ice cream at Dun Laoghaire (already forget how to pronounce that) and of course saw some live Irish folk music (which I didn't even know I liked until I saw it live). My first two nights in Dublin were spent in a hostel called Abrahams. I wasn't supposed to even have stayed there at all to begin with because I thought I had all my nights booked at The Spire hostel (my second hostel). Buuuut as it turned out I messed up my booking (which I may have mentioned earlier? - so my apologies if I'm becoming redundant), and I was either going to be homeless in Dublin for two nights, or book another hostel. I was to be honest kind of keen of the idea of being a Dublin bum for two nights, buuuut in hindsight I am very happy I opted not to do that.

My pub crawl homies Meredith, Matteo (Matthew?) and Jolene

I met some very cool people at Abrahams including my 60 something year old secret agent homeboy David Strauss and his 13 languages, a few Canadians, some other guy who's name I forget, some French person who kindly helped me finish my pasta the first night because I made entirely too much, Matteo, Jolene, and last but definitely not least Meredith - if you are reading this, thanks so much for hanging out with me practically every day, and it was such a pleasure meeting you and getting to know you! So far so good! Then I moved to my next hostel which was right around the corner. This was a 22 bed dorm and I figured with 22 beds, surely I would have a few people to talk to and get to know. However, that was not exactly the case. Nobody really talked to each other at all, only the people they already knew. So yeah hostel #2 wasn't exactly a win for the first few nights. Only on my second to last night there did I meet two more Canadians (can't seem to get away from them) Gillian and Ally who were very friendly! Dublin overall was a total blast! I will definitely try to make my way back there at some point.

I found a Timmys in Dublin.. why!?

From Dublin on the 27th I hitchhiked to Galway, Ireland (which you'll be able to read about in the next blog entry I make - because that is an experience on its own). Galway itself is quite neat. To be fully honest I didn't really get a very good chance to look around there. because I arrived on the evening of the 27th, went out for drinks and dinner with a few of my hostel roomies, then went to the Cliffs of Mohor today (the 28th) and then had to keep travelling. I will say however, that being in a slightly smaller city was quite refreshing, because for the last little while I have been in a fair amount of larger cities, which to be fully honest, all tend to be a little bit the same (good grief, how pretentious do I sound right now?) I had heard a lot of very good things about The Cliffs of Mohor and had originally thought that they were a lot closer to Galway than they actually are. But that didn't stop me from seeing them. I set my alarm for 9:30 this morning and had the breakfast the hostel provided (toast, cereal and coffee, yum yum) and looked into how to get to the cliffs. Unfortunately there isn't really a whole lot of transport out there on a Tuesday morning, however there was a tour bus that took people there, so I opted for that choice and bit the bullet by paying 20 euro for the tourbus. Frankly I felt a little bit weird being on a tour bus by myself when pretty much everybody else on the bus was travelling with at least one other person, but oh well, screw that noise, I just wanted to see the cliffs okay?! It was a bit of a trek out there through some very small windy roads in a very large bus, and there were points where I wondered whether the bus would make it up Corkscrew Hill or past a tractor that was coming in the other direction in the same lane as we were. Clearly we did, otherwise I don't think I'd currently be writing this blog entry.

Talk aboot a cliff hanger eh

It was windy (note: no toque)

Once we got to the cliffs I was absolutely stunned! They are such a phenomenal sight. I took a few photos with my phone camera but they are almost insulting when you compare them to actually being there. We had two hours to look around before the bus left, which sounds like a long time, but at the end I didn't think it was enough. The cliffs are very tall and the pathway along them is set quite far back from the edge for the safety of dumb tourists. However the further along you go along the path, the less secure it becomes and the less the fence is any longer a thing. But I needed to see this sight away from all the hustle and bustle and camera shots and pointing fingers, so I treked out a little ways down the pathway where things started to deteriorate. Maybe I wasn't supposed to be there, but at one point along the ¨pathway¨ the wind started to REALLY pick up. It was without a doubt the strongest gust of wind I had ever experienced, it actually almost picked me up and blew me over and I was knocked to my side. At this point I start to wonder how safe it really was where I was standing and it didn't help that this was also the exact moment that I realized there were no other ¨ignorant¨ tourists around me. I kind of just lay down and let the wind blow through my clothes. Wow. Just wow! What an experience. I haven't felt that alive for a while.

Dutch (Canadian) tilt

Less wind here - hence normal[ish] expression

All of my senses were heightened and the adrenaline was pumping! Suddenly the strong winds decide that the ocean is a better place for me toque (or ¨beanie¨ for you non-Canucks), and it blew it off of my head. I hadn't lost it yet but it was rapidly making its way towards the edge of the cliffs. I wasn't sure whether I should run after it or not but it was still far enough away from the edge and I am too proud to lose my warm toque so I galloped along the rocks to go fetch it, and it was definitely playing keep away. Eventually I got back my hat, and at this point really had the blood flowing. I decided that this was a good opportunity to just yell at the top of my lungs, just 'cause. Best idea ever! Not even kidding. So there I am standing near the edge of a cliff, wind trying to blow me around, yelling as loud as I possibly can, and luckily nobody around to witness my mental episode. From here I decide it may be wiser to head closer to the other people in case something does actually happen. So I make it back to a place where the wind isn't as violent and just sit down basking in the sunshine and watching the seagulls struggle to fly over the cliffs in the wind. What an experience though! Totally worth the 20 euro and the awful humour of the tour guide.

So now I am sitting on a bus that is equiped with wifi at 3:18AM, on the way to Dublin airport to head back to Patrick in Switzerland to catch my 6:50 flight. Next entry I will write - soonish - will be my hitchhiking day. 

Also there are SO MANY SHEEP in Ireland! And for anybody who has ever played Settlers of Catan with me, knows how much this excites me. 

Until soon :)

Photo #1 (unedited)

Photo #2 (edited)

PS. Alright so a little explanation about these last two photos here. Meredith, Gillian, Ally (some of my awesome roomies) and myself went to this Irish pub to drink beer and witness some of that excellent Irish folk music I was mentioning earlier. I asked Gillian if she could take a couple of photos of us to look back on later. As you can see, they did not turn out very well. My phone camera is absolute garbage when it comes to any form of low lighting. So I thought I would attempt to make photo #1 visable a little bit by going into the photo options on my phone and playing with the settings and turning up the brightness (I really didn't think it would work, but I figured no harm in trying..) As you can also see, it only turned up the brightness on Photo #2 on one section.. my face. When I saw the outcome that resulted from playing with the settings I burst out laughing and couldn't stop for a good 3 minutes. I was in the Spire hostel kitchen when I did this, and I think the people around me thought I was having a mental breakdown. And the harder I tried not to laugh the harder I laughed. This may not be amusing to anybody else, but at the very least I will put it up here so that I can have a good laugh later on when I look back at it.

One more, 'cause why not?

I'm Dublin My Chances of Getting Lost

Guess what? I'm in Ireland.
The trip from Munich to here was an interesting one. Nothing all too eventful I suppose, however the flight I had booked for some reason didn't take into account that I also had a large backpack I couldn't take onto carry-on due to its weight and size. Apparently I needed to do that separately from the flight itself, so when I got to the airport I had two options: leave my backpack behind, or pay 40 euro to get it onto the plane. Guess which one I took?

Some weirdo in Dublin

Some building in Dublin

What can I say about Munich? Munich was interesting (?) I don't think I really gave myself enough time there to really explore the city and get to know it. I walked around a little bit, explored some record stores, spent way too much on some records (I did however find a few I had been looking for for a while), explored the Oktoberfest fest (I think they missed the memo that it is April already) among some other things. I did however meet a fellow Canuck who seemed to be as lost and unsure about what he was doing there as I was (haha sorry Alex :P) so we spent some time together and just hung out. This was probably the highlight. It was nice having a fellow Canadian accompany me whilst doing some super touristy sightseeing, it would have just felt weird if I had done it by myself - especially in the Oktoberfest. The Oktoberfest I have to write a little bit more about. I'm not entirely sure what it was all about to be honest. There were just a bunch of amusement park rides and stalls and beer tents set up in this one area. Alex and I decided to go take a look and hit up the main beer tent where everybody inside was quite drunk in their lederhosen and those other strange outfits. I think this is probably the place where I felt the most like a stupid tourist in all my travels. We wanted to go get a few beers but had no idea what the procedure was to do so. So Alex and I walked to where we thought we could buy a beer and this one lady working there violently yanks me aside and starts to fill up two liter pints with beer from the tap after shouting something in German at me. Alex decides to ask the guy behind the counter if we can have two beers and the guy shouts something in German back at him. At this point we were no less confused than when we first walked in. Then this lady walks down the side of the tent and everybody stands up and claps and cheers like absolute hooligans. At this point I realize that I am standing right in her pathway and figure that its probably a wise choice to get out of the way. Regardless to say Alex and myself probably photobombed like 50% of the pictures of this lady, standing in the back looking super confused. This is definitely a win in my opinion! In the end we left this hellhole of a tent and grabbed a pint on this one strange outdoor bar that was spinning in a circle. I might sound weird when I speak English or something because I asked the lady at this bar if we can have two beers and she says they don't have any. So Alex points at two beers that the people standing next to us were drinking and soon after we are handed two beers.. All in all Munich was pretty decent though.

Best coffee and carrot cake ever!

So now I am in Dublin, Ireland. To be honest, it is nice to be able to speak English to people and not have them look back at you in utter disgust. Also the accents here are so goshdarn fantastic!! I sat down today at a coffee shop, ordered a coffee and carrot cake (which was one of the best slices of carrot cake I have ever eaten) and just sat down next to some people and listened to them converse in their Irish accents (not creepy at all).
Originally I was intending to be homeless for my first two nights here, but looking at it now, I am so happy I booked a different hostel for my first two nights. Thanks for the advice everyone. :) The hostel here is quite nice. Met a few fellow travelers who have all been very friendly. Today has been my first full day here and already I am liking the vibe here. Ar first I got super lost and was quite frustrated, and was wondering what on earth I am doing here by myself so far from home. Let me say that getting lost as a diabetic is not fun at all.. You may wonder what differentiates it from not being a diabetic and being lost? But if I wasn't I honestly wouldn't really care [that much] about how long I'd be lost for. However when I need to constantly worry about blood sugar and food and doing insulin in public and having people think I am shooting heroin, it can add a level of stress to my travels. But I soon found my way and things started looking up. I decided to just sit down on a bench and relax for about an hour and it did me a lot of good. I kind of realized I am rushing through things too fast and just need to take some time to slow down and experience things as they are happening.
I am also quite proud of myself. I hit up like 3 or 4 record stores today here in Dublin and didn't buy a single record! That's quite impressive if I may say so myself.

Plans for tomorrow? Not really sure. I definitely want to make it to the coast at some point, and one of my roommates was just telling me about how she went and it was fantastic. She said she'd go again and asked if I wanted to come along so I'm definitely going to try and do that at some point. I also am thinking I may hitchhike to Cork. I have a hostel booked until the 27th but have nothing booked or specifically planned for after that, so maybe I'll spend a little bit more time in Dublin and just get lost. I spoke to these two Russian people in the Hostel at Munich who were hitchhiking their entire Europe trip and it was very inspiring!
Also I happened to let in two people in the kitchen who said at first they had forgotten their key. Once I had talked to them for about 20 minutes one of them goes, ¨I'm going to be totally honest, we're not actually staying at this hostel, we just needed a kitchen to use¨, to which I replied, ¨Fuckin' eh!¨.
PS. There are entirely too many pubs here.

Things are looking up

Feeling Kind of Hostel

Hostel life if much harder than the thug life yo. Or so it can be.

I'm in Munich (Munchen) now and have spent one night in the hostel I'm in now. Before I get to that, let me just mention that the bus ride from Lyon to here was about 13.5 hours and was overnight. I couldn't really sleep very well knowing I had to transfer buses at some point so I only really had a couple of hours of sleep. Once I got to the hostel I wasn't able to go into the room until 3:00 so I had a bit of time to kill. Decided to walk around a little bit and kill some time. I felt like a zombie so I decided to totally live life on the edge and wait in the lobby. Once I finally got into the room I passed out for quite a while. The room I was in clearly had people staying in it but nobody was there so it was a nice opportunity to catch some Zzzzzs. I did notice that the other beds were filled with wigs and plastic bats and ferry costumers and handcuffs and police hats and all that fun stuff. Next thing I know there is some drunk guy banging on the hostel door room trying to get in. For all I knew it could have been any drunk fool trying to get into the room and I didn't really feel like dealing with that, so I didn't open the door (very un-Canadian of me I know). Several minutes later the door opens and I hear ¨which one of you fuckers didn't open the door for me?¨.. this was the point where I pretended very hard to be asleep. My bed was around a small corner so I'm not even sure he saw me or not, but a few seconds later I heard him mutter, ¨none of you [insert bad words here] are even in here¨. I figured I'd leave the introductions for another time.. Later that same evening two more people come in, some American guy and some British girl he had evidently just ¨picked up¨. They then proceeded to get it on and it was very clear that she was just not into it at all. I'll leave the rest of the details out.. but ugh... Then later all of the first guy's bro's came back in being super drunk and loud and started giving the other bro major props for getting with this one girl. Also like 4 people in my room snored super loud.

This morning they had all checked out so that was kind of nice. My antisocial butt didn't even meet any of them. I've met a few of my roommates for this night and they seemed friendly. 

Also sorry if it seems like this entire entry was just me complaining, I just want to document it for later amusement.

I kid you not, this is the only photo I got in Munich, and its a blurry one. Incredible jazz show though to say the least. It was at this place called Unterfahrt, and my stupid immature Canadian butt thought the name was slightly amusing.

Am I Lyon to Myself?

View of Lyon

So my solo travels have officially started. Not sure how I feel about them yet, but I need to give it a little more time to sink in I think. I left by train from Switzerland (Bern I think it was) and headed off to Lyon, France which is where I am currently residing. The train ride wasn't all too bad actually. A few things to note though, definitely set an alarm before the estimated time of arrival for the next time I travel by bus or train. Luckily I didn't miss my stop though. Also it was slightly confusing when I got on, because I had a designated section and seat number for the train ride, but when I got to that spot there was a kid crying his eyes out in my seat so I figured that asking him to get out of my damn seat wouldn't be a very nice thing to do. I thought I was all smart and stuff before I left by writing down the directions from the train station to the hostel but I clearly missed the first step or two because it took me a while to find the street I needed to be on. It was hot as all hell and having a heavy backpack on my back didn't help. I asked a few people for directions and everybody was very friendly (I honestly don't know what people talk about when they say that the French can be snobby.. they have all been so polite to me). This one lady who spoke very broken English even offered to walk me to the street I needed to be on which was incredibly helpful. It made me wish I could actually speak French a little better, because we were trying to talk to one another but the language barrier was very evident. So after walking around for about an hour - which should have been maybe 15 minutes from the station - I finally arrived at my destination.. or did I? When I reached the address of the hostel all it was was a large wooden door that was locked. There was absolutely no signage of the hostel anywhere to be found. As you can imagine this was a little bit worrisome. I gave Patrick a call and asked him to double check the address and see if he could maybe find a phone number of the place. He was very helpful but unfortunately none of the info got me any closer to solving the problem. After asking several locals (nobody had even heard of the place) I decided to just sit around outside and see if anybody would come in or out of that door. About an hour later somebody finally come out and I did not hesitate to catch the door before it shut again. Once inside I still thought I had the wrong place. It seemed very residential.. After going up 4 flights of stairs I was pleasantly greeted by one of the hostel workers. I had found it!! I was warmly welcomed with a glass of wine and given a little tour of the location. It is a very small hostel but it is quite nice. A lot of people my age are staying here who are pretty much all doing what I am doing and some are just as lost as I am so that's kind of nice I suppose? As nice as it is here in the hostel its kind of a hassle as well. The first night I was here, people went out relatively late and came back late as well. And the concept of other people might be something they can work on (not to sound like an ass or anything..) It was pretty noisy and apparently a couple of the people staying here got stuck in the tiny elevator for about 45 minutes. It holds like 4 people maximum but they squeezed in 6 and it got stuck.. So other people thought it would be a good idea to entertain them while they were in there by blasting Bob Marley's Buffalo Soldier followed by a compilation of Abba songs. Lucky I'm a heavy sleeper so it wasn't much of an issue.

The dessert I had after the veggie burger.
Not sure what the ¨freedom¨ is all about though.
Maybe they thought I was American?

Lyon itself is quite nice though, and apparently has the best food in all of France. As a vegetarian that might be harder to prove, however this one veggie burger I had last night was phenomenal (..and expensive). I've already done a tour of the local record stores and found a few sweet records. One which I had been looking for for some time. The hostel I'm staying at is located right in between Le Rhone and La Saone rivers.
The other people in the hostel must think I'm an old man or something because while everybody else is going out I've been hitting the sack pretty early every night. I'm going to try my best to stay up tonight though and go out with some of the people here. I've just been unbelievably exhausted these last few days. Hopefully I can find my next wind though.
Also why is it so warm!? Its 27 °C already and its not even May yet..
So I was going to end this entry with a bad pun about France, none really came to mind so I looked up French jokes in google.. oooooooh boy.. is all that I will say.

I love lamp.

Went up and down these stairs several times
with Leon - my hostel friend - because we
got lost..