its a pretty incredible thing to get to the top of a steep hill and look behind you and realize that as far as your eyes can see, you have walked. in fact, you have walked farther than your eyes can see, and its not even noon. its a powerful sensation, and also rather empowering, to feel that you can walk so far. the countryside is beautiful beyond measure. often, when we walk through a tiny town, a block will just end and the little familiar yellow arrow points us onwards. towns just end, abruptly, into the fields that surround the camino.
walking in the morning means we get to see little towns just coming awake, farmers in their fields and ubiquitous old spanish ladies with their thick wool socks and sturdy little black shoes tettering their way across cobblestone plazas. they call out "¡buen camino!" (good road!) and "¡un abrazo por el santo!" (a hug for saint james!) as we pass. sometimes they stop us to ask if anna is spanish and where i am from (they usually think i am german) and to wish us luck. i have to say, people here are incredibly friendly and sweet, and my fellow camino-ers likewise are supportive and friendly. at dinner tonight anna and i held a halting and awkward conversation with fransisco, a spaniard on the road, who is doing the camino for a second time, and who speaks little english. my spanish is saturated with accidental german and anna´s is likewise rusty, so we made an odd trio, yet we managed to discuss everything from school, to families, to the camino itself, to sparks and ghetto predators (willy and grace, i kid you not). we met lots of americans on the road today as well and ate lunch with a california boy named eric. i met a couple from santa cruz (kalia! i thought of you!), and we contintued to weave a path with our new canadian friends eleanor and anna, and rheo from hawaii.
the meseta is finally coming to an end after three days of straight red dust roads. this morning we began climbing up into the hills and by a this time tomorrow we will be in the galician mountains., watching the germany-spain european cup in a local bar. i´m not entirely sure how to feel about this game: if either team was playing someone else, i would be routing for germany or spain, but since they are playing each other and they are my two favorite teams, i am feeling very torn. my heart is with germany, always, but i am IN spain on the camino, and i do love the spanish team also. ah, the conflict!
all in all, it was a good day, despite being even more sore and exhausted than i was yesterday, and despite the fact that i can´t seem to get my blisters to heal....suggestions?
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
did we walk 60km?
yesterday as anna and i shouldered our packs and walked out of león, we passed a small man who pointed to a sign on the wall of a building that said "santiago de compostela 350km." tonight, outside of the restaurant where we ate our pilgrim´s meal we saw a sign that said "santiago de compostela 290km." anna and i agree on this fact: we have not walked 60km. we have walked about 37km since beginning--i´m not sure of exact km to mile conversions but you all have calculators and we are estimating about 20 miles. knowing me, thats some distance.
we followed the alternative route out of león, which meant walking a little farther, but also meant not walking along the highway. this was probably a good decision, for scenic reasons, or at least it seemed so for a the first hour. around this point we realized the scenery was not going to change anytime soon. it was hot yesterday, beyond hot, and there was no shade. by the time we stopped for lunch around quarter of noon, i had already drunk 2 liters of water and was still thirsty. here on the mesesta of spain, the first thing you feel is the heat and the sun, but the second is the thirst. towns appear as shimmering mirages on the horizon, little red tiled roofs peeping out over the top of the next hill. as they grow in the distance, you begin to hope wildly that they are the town you have planned to stop in or stay in because your feet are aching and in my case (anna seems fine) your blisters are killing you and every step begins to feel like its own private agony. meanwhile, the sun just gets hotter and hotter.
today was doubtless better than yesterday. we didn´t have to walk through an industrial park to get out of town and into the countryside, and we managed to do all of our walking in the morning on paths that took us through cultivated fields and shade (thankfully!). nonetheless my feet were hurting horrificially by the time we arrived in hospital de orbigo, and after some frustration getting into town itself (a wrong turn took us into some weird field for about 3o minutes, which feels like hours when all you want to do is get into town, but before long we were walking across the famous bridge in town over a "river" (translation: dried up stream) and on our way to a little oasis. there is a garden in this albergue and the church next door smells like gardinias because some little old lady fills them all the vases everyday. the courtyard is cobbled and sweet, and anna and i spent most of the afternoon in deep conversation with two canadian woman, named oddly enough eleanor and anna. we both got accidently sunburned, but otherwise had a delightful afternoon and evening in the company of two women who could easily be our mothers (they both have children my age or older).
this is what is most incredible about this journey: we are some the youngest people on the camino and in many ways have little in common with those around us, many of whom we can only communicated in vague pointing gestures and simple words, and yet we all share this experience of being tired and worn out and yet somehow more alive for the whole experience.
its someone else´s turn to use the computer, so i´ll sign off. 19km tomorrow!
besos.
we followed the alternative route out of león, which meant walking a little farther, but also meant not walking along the highway. this was probably a good decision, for scenic reasons, or at least it seemed so for a the first hour. around this point we realized the scenery was not going to change anytime soon. it was hot yesterday, beyond hot, and there was no shade. by the time we stopped for lunch around quarter of noon, i had already drunk 2 liters of water and was still thirsty. here on the mesesta of spain, the first thing you feel is the heat and the sun, but the second is the thirst. towns appear as shimmering mirages on the horizon, little red tiled roofs peeping out over the top of the next hill. as they grow in the distance, you begin to hope wildly that they are the town you have planned to stop in or stay in because your feet are aching and in my case (anna seems fine) your blisters are killing you and every step begins to feel like its own private agony. meanwhile, the sun just gets hotter and hotter.
today was doubtless better than yesterday. we didn´t have to walk through an industrial park to get out of town and into the countryside, and we managed to do all of our walking in the morning on paths that took us through cultivated fields and shade (thankfully!). nonetheless my feet were hurting horrificially by the time we arrived in hospital de orbigo, and after some frustration getting into town itself (a wrong turn took us into some weird field for about 3o minutes, which feels like hours when all you want to do is get into town, but before long we were walking across the famous bridge in town over a "river" (translation: dried up stream) and on our way to a little oasis. there is a garden in this albergue and the church next door smells like gardinias because some little old lady fills them all the vases everyday. the courtyard is cobbled and sweet, and anna and i spent most of the afternoon in deep conversation with two canadian woman, named oddly enough eleanor and anna. we both got accidently sunburned, but otherwise had a delightful afternoon and evening in the company of two women who could easily be our mothers (they both have children my age or older).
this is what is most incredible about this journey: we are some the youngest people on the camino and in many ways have little in common with those around us, many of whom we can only communicated in vague pointing gestures and simple words, and yet we all share this experience of being tired and worn out and yet somehow more alive for the whole experience.
its someone else´s turn to use the computer, so i´ll sign off. 19km tomorrow!
besos.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
hallo/allo/hola
its been a few days since i last posted, but since then i have left berlin (sad face), and gone to paris, where anna and i spent a whirlwind day in the city, ate dinner, and left again. this afternoon we arrived in léon, españa, where we will begin our journey on foot tomorrow. its starting to feel real.
my head is now one big mush of languages--i say merci when i mean gracias, enschuldigung when i mean pardoname, and becoming more and more confused about where i am everytime i open my mouth. its all a bit much.
anyway, i can´t write too much right now: anna i need to track down housing and food and find somewhere to watch the game tonight. i´ll write more again soon, i promise, as soon as i am in a town with internet again. in the meantime, i am increasing my fluency in the international language of gesture, drinking lots of water, and trying to kick the runny nose and cough i have picked up in the past 48 hours.
keep me in your thoughts--tomorrow we begin our life as pelegrinos...
my head is now one big mush of languages--i say merci when i mean gracias, enschuldigung when i mean pardoname, and becoming more and more confused about where i am everytime i open my mouth. its all a bit much.
anyway, i can´t write too much right now: anna i need to track down housing and food and find somewhere to watch the game tonight. i´ll write more again soon, i promise, as soon as i am in a town with internet again. in the meantime, i am increasing my fluency in the international language of gesture, drinking lots of water, and trying to kick the runny nose and cough i have picked up in the past 48 hours.
keep me in your thoughts--tomorrow we begin our life as pelegrinos...
Sunday, June 22, 2008
bard in berlin
it turns out that bard has moved its campus to berlin. i mean, thats what it feels like. anna and i are here, staying with aya mckeen, visiting with and hanging out with willy crichton and emma hagendorf, as is abbey hart. emma lives with sara frier, and somewhere else in this city is natalia dzodziak. camilla geld might be around. shay howell was just here and later this week, after i have left, jess loudis will be here too.
friday was abbey's 21st birthday, and you can bet that we celebrated with style. in fact we celebrated from the time it became her birthday here to the time it was no longer her birthday in new york.
we (anna, aya, and ella) met up with willy, abbey, and willy's brother harlan outside of the hauptbahnhof (main train station) and headed to the edge of tiergarten, a large park in west berlin, along the banks of the spree, where we proceeded to watch the police and tourist boats meander past, sipping beers, and snacking on "african flavored" chips. it was a beautiful day filled with laughter, sunshine, and friends. anna and aya left around 6 to go grocery shopping, and the rest of us headed to willy's neighborhood to check out his flat (very impressive) before we headed to the main turkish neighborhood in berlin, kreuzberg, to watch the turkey-croatia game and score some schwarma for dinner.
for the record, berlin is the fourth largest turkish city in the world, so this game was kind of Big Deal. we found a bar/restaurant with lots of chairs and a huge television screen, and having eating dinner in a playground, we all settled in to watch the game. willy's parents joined us, as did about 35-40 turks as the game started. it was maybe the most boring game in the history of football. there were about 10 minutes that were exciting, and since the game went to double overtime and sudden death, that meant there were about 118 minutes of boredom, plus halftime and the breaks between overtime.
with three minutes left in the second overtime, the croatians scored. you could literally feel the sadness coming from the turks sitting all around us. it was almost impossible to come back with so little time left. to their credit, however, the turkish team held it together, bidding again and again for a shot. in the LAST second of injury time, with an impressive pass, the turks scored. had they missed, the game would have been over. their goal meant that we now went to sudden death and that everything around us exploded with screaming and jumping and dancing and all the turks in germany freaking out. this explosion of excitement was matched by the each goal the turks made in sudden death and each miss by the croatian team, and then on large scale when the croatians missed their last shot. suddenly we were leaping out of seats, screaming, and freaking out as well. the only comparison i can think of in sporting experience is game 4 of the world series in 2004. if you live in red sox nation, you know what i am talking about.
as we boarded the ubahn to go back to willy's, we encountered rioting, dancing in the streets, riot police, and turkish fans singing and banging on the windows of ubahn cars. it was absolute joyful chaos. on wednesday the turks play germany to advance to the finals. germany and especially berlin might....implode. pray for aya's safety as she is a deutschland fan in a türkiye section of the city.
the rest of the night was spent in the strangest club i can imagine encountering (bunny suits? thongs over short shots? bathrobes? gold lamé? tutus? leopard print? tiaras? where are we? only in BERLIN.) dancing and celebrating the birth of abbey gail hart. willy, harlan, abbey, emma and i ended up having a sleepover at emma's, the perfect end to a truly great, and truly berlin, day.
check back later for more on our berlin adventures. i'll post again later today.
friday was abbey's 21st birthday, and you can bet that we celebrated with style. in fact we celebrated from the time it became her birthday here to the time it was no longer her birthday in new york.
we (anna, aya, and ella) met up with willy, abbey, and willy's brother harlan outside of the hauptbahnhof (main train station) and headed to the edge of tiergarten, a large park in west berlin, along the banks of the spree, where we proceeded to watch the police and tourist boats meander past, sipping beers, and snacking on "african flavored" chips. it was a beautiful day filled with laughter, sunshine, and friends. anna and aya left around 6 to go grocery shopping, and the rest of us headed to willy's neighborhood to check out his flat (very impressive) before we headed to the main turkish neighborhood in berlin, kreuzberg, to watch the turkey-croatia game and score some schwarma for dinner.
for the record, berlin is the fourth largest turkish city in the world, so this game was kind of Big Deal. we found a bar/restaurant with lots of chairs and a huge television screen, and having eating dinner in a playground, we all settled in to watch the game. willy's parents joined us, as did about 35-40 turks as the game started. it was maybe the most boring game in the history of football. there were about 10 minutes that were exciting, and since the game went to double overtime and sudden death, that meant there were about 118 minutes of boredom, plus halftime and the breaks between overtime.
with three minutes left in the second overtime, the croatians scored. you could literally feel the sadness coming from the turks sitting all around us. it was almost impossible to come back with so little time left. to their credit, however, the turkish team held it together, bidding again and again for a shot. in the LAST second of injury time, with an impressive pass, the turks scored. had they missed, the game would have been over. their goal meant that we now went to sudden death and that everything around us exploded with screaming and jumping and dancing and all the turks in germany freaking out. this explosion of excitement was matched by the each goal the turks made in sudden death and each miss by the croatian team, and then on large scale when the croatians missed their last shot. suddenly we were leaping out of seats, screaming, and freaking out as well. the only comparison i can think of in sporting experience is game 4 of the world series in 2004. if you live in red sox nation, you know what i am talking about.
as we boarded the ubahn to go back to willy's, we encountered rioting, dancing in the streets, riot police, and turkish fans singing and banging on the windows of ubahn cars. it was absolute joyful chaos. on wednesday the turks play germany to advance to the finals. germany and especially berlin might....implode. pray for aya's safety as she is a deutschland fan in a türkiye section of the city.
the rest of the night was spent in the strangest club i can imagine encountering (bunny suits? thongs over short shots? bathrobes? gold lamé? tutus? leopard print? tiaras? where are we? only in BERLIN.) dancing and celebrating the birth of abbey gail hart. willy, harlan, abbey, emma and i ended up having a sleepover at emma's, the perfect end to a truly great, and truly berlin, day.
check back later for more on our berlin adventures. i'll post again later today.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Deutschland, Deutschland
thursday morning at 3am, anna and i were dressing silently in the dark of our hostel room, trying not to wake our hostel roommates.
actually, we weren't dressing. we went to sleep in our clothes.
why this early wake up call? well, a month ago, anna and i found a FREE flight from dublin to berlin. well, free flight equals 6:05am flights, but it was still "cheaper than a cab from the upper east side to battery park city" and less than our taxi last night home from emma's apartment in berlin...but i am getting ahead of myself.
getting to this early flight should not have been an issue. after all, there is bus that runs once an hour from only a 15 minute walk from our hostel directly to the airport. now, let me clarify some things about dublin public transportation. it would APPEAR that dublin has great public transportation, but you would never know because there are no comprehensive schedules and no map. anna and i were baffled by this. its not so much even that there are no maps for tourists; there are no maps or schedules for people who live dublin. i don't get it. the bus that we were supposed to take to the airport came once an hour, but did anyone know what time? no. we asked the following people: the concierge at our hostel and the fancy-schmancy hotel where the bus stops, the central bus station, and a bus driver on one of the airport buses. no one had the same answer, and no one seemed to know for sure if their "answer" was the right one.
not helpful. so anna and i woke at 3 in hopes of catching a bus by 4:15. in the end, getting nervous, we shared a taxi with five others and spent half as much money, making it to the airport in good time. in the end, anna and i think that we spent time awake, in city center dublin, for every hour except 6-7pm when we napped both days.
ryanair did NOT loose our luggage, thankfully, and we arrived in berlin, city of my heart!, to find aya waiting for us at the baggage claim. after hugs and excited, we bought tickets for the bus and headed back to her apartment to nap (we were a little tired, after our early morning adventures on the streets of ireland's capital). around 1, we woke, showered, and prepared a picnic lunch for ourselves, imogen, and willy's family at a little park only a block or two from aya's apartment.
it was this beautiful little palatial park, with sloped lawns and neatly groomed hedges, and it was so lovely to see willy and imogen and aya and to meet the rest of willy's family (i had met his dad several times before). there was something about it that made me feel full and warm and gushy inside...maybe it was the nutella and strawberries.
later that night, after dinner at aya's, the three of us went to emma hagendorf's to watch the germany-portugal game in the european cup. it was an incredible game, well played by both teams, and incredible to be in germany again during Serious Soccer Season (SSS). During SSS, the germans cover themselves in facepaint, wear only "schwartz, rot, gold", the colors of the german flag, and run around singing songs with lyrics as poetic and thoughtful as "deutschland, deutschland, deutschland, deutschland." we naturally joined it, dancing around the apartment every time the germans scored, air fiving the super cute 7 year olds who were also celebrating across the street in their window, and screaming every time someone set off a firework or shot an air gun--which seemed to happen a lot, irregardless of what was happening in the game.
germany won 3-2, which caused a lot of yelling and celebrations, including several that stopped traffic in emma's neighborhood. despite the rain and the forced taxi ride because the s-bahn had stopped running, it was a night of elation.
i fell asleep hearing the chants of the germans ringing in my head. "deutschland, deutschland, deutschland...."
actually, we weren't dressing. we went to sleep in our clothes.
why this early wake up call? well, a month ago, anna and i found a FREE flight from dublin to berlin. well, free flight equals 6:05am flights, but it was still "cheaper than a cab from the upper east side to battery park city" and less than our taxi last night home from emma's apartment in berlin...but i am getting ahead of myself.
getting to this early flight should not have been an issue. after all, there is bus that runs once an hour from only a 15 minute walk from our hostel directly to the airport. now, let me clarify some things about dublin public transportation. it would APPEAR that dublin has great public transportation, but you would never know because there are no comprehensive schedules and no map. anna and i were baffled by this. its not so much even that there are no maps for tourists; there are no maps or schedules for people who live dublin. i don't get it. the bus that we were supposed to take to the airport came once an hour, but did anyone know what time? no. we asked the following people: the concierge at our hostel and the fancy-schmancy hotel where the bus stops, the central bus station, and a bus driver on one of the airport buses. no one had the same answer, and no one seemed to know for sure if their "answer" was the right one.
not helpful. so anna and i woke at 3 in hopes of catching a bus by 4:15. in the end, getting nervous, we shared a taxi with five others and spent half as much money, making it to the airport in good time. in the end, anna and i think that we spent time awake, in city center dublin, for every hour except 6-7pm when we napped both days.
ryanair did NOT loose our luggage, thankfully, and we arrived in berlin, city of my heart!, to find aya waiting for us at the baggage claim. after hugs and excited, we bought tickets for the bus and headed back to her apartment to nap (we were a little tired, after our early morning adventures on the streets of ireland's capital). around 1, we woke, showered, and prepared a picnic lunch for ourselves, imogen, and willy's family at a little park only a block or two from aya's apartment.
it was this beautiful little palatial park, with sloped lawns and neatly groomed hedges, and it was so lovely to see willy and imogen and aya and to meet the rest of willy's family (i had met his dad several times before). there was something about it that made me feel full and warm and gushy inside...maybe it was the nutella and strawberries.
later that night, after dinner at aya's, the three of us went to emma hagendorf's to watch the germany-portugal game in the european cup. it was an incredible game, well played by both teams, and incredible to be in germany again during Serious Soccer Season (SSS). During SSS, the germans cover themselves in facepaint, wear only "schwartz, rot, gold", the colors of the german flag, and run around singing songs with lyrics as poetic and thoughtful as "deutschland, deutschland, deutschland, deutschland." we naturally joined it, dancing around the apartment every time the germans scored, air fiving the super cute 7 year olds who were also celebrating across the street in their window, and screaming every time someone set off a firework or shot an air gun--which seemed to happen a lot, irregardless of what was happening in the game.
germany won 3-2, which caused a lot of yelling and celebrations, including several that stopped traffic in emma's neighborhood. despite the rain and the forced taxi ride because the s-bahn had stopped running, it was a night of elation.
i fell asleep hearing the chants of the germans ringing in my head. "deutschland, deutschland, deutschland...."
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
its a small world after all
so anna and i are staying in a hostel called "jacob's inn" in city center dublin and this is my opportunity to officially recommend it. i slept incredibly well last night (the guiness may have helped) and we made friends with the other girls in our bunk room incredibly fast. this is what i love about hostel culture--everyone is there with the intent of getting to know the person sleeping in the bunks next to them, and everyone is eager to make friends and have adventures. i was sort of worried before, having never done the hostel thing, but now i am totally all about it, which is good, cause its all i'll have for several weeks on the camino.
so these are our new friends: karen and susan, cousins originally from hawai'i who now live in oregon and new york respectively; and a pair of talkative, funny, "non-mormons" from utah named cynthia and misty ("i am not a porn star, despite my name"). we went out with them to a bar called temple bar last night. temple bar is such a big deal in dublin that they named an entire district of the city after it--and its actually that cool, a mix of tourist and locals, live music and heavy drinking, lots of weird rooms connecting to each other decorated in a thousand different ways, all in a old section of the city with cobblestone streets. the italians were being celebratory (their team just advanced in the european championship), but to ward of their unwanted advances, we made friends with a another american who had just arrived, a 20-yr old named andy who played ultimate at the university of wisconsin. his team just won the national championship, and you can bet that anna and i "talked shop" with him about ultimate for a while. i explained that i was from amherst, and he lit up.
A: "my roommate in the fall is a kid from amherst!"
E: "no way! who?"
A: "jeremiah berlin. do you know him?"
to be clear, i do not "know" jeremiah berlin. it is likely that we have met, and i certainly know who he is. we have probably even had conversations before. this is especially likely because we went to elementary school together as well as high school and while he is two years younger, in a school of less than 200, you know everyone. his sister is an ultimate player in my brother's class. i have watched him play. I wouldn't say we are buddy buddy, but yes, i know him, and at a school of 50,000 students, he is living this fall with the boy i just met by fluke in a bar full of 200 people.
bars in foreign cities are the ideal place to discover that it is, after all, a very small world.
so these are our new friends: karen and susan, cousins originally from hawai'i who now live in oregon and new york respectively; and a pair of talkative, funny, "non-mormons" from utah named cynthia and misty ("i am not a porn star, despite my name"). we went out with them to a bar called temple bar last night. temple bar is such a big deal in dublin that they named an entire district of the city after it--and its actually that cool, a mix of tourist and locals, live music and heavy drinking, lots of weird rooms connecting to each other decorated in a thousand different ways, all in a old section of the city with cobblestone streets. the italians were being celebratory (their team just advanced in the european championship), but to ward of their unwanted advances, we made friends with a another american who had just arrived, a 20-yr old named andy who played ultimate at the university of wisconsin. his team just won the national championship, and you can bet that anna and i "talked shop" with him about ultimate for a while. i explained that i was from amherst, and he lit up.
A: "my roommate in the fall is a kid from amherst!"
E: "no way! who?"
A: "jeremiah berlin. do you know him?"
to be clear, i do not "know" jeremiah berlin. it is likely that we have met, and i certainly know who he is. we have probably even had conversations before. this is especially likely because we went to elementary school together as well as high school and while he is two years younger, in a school of less than 200, you know everyone. his sister is an ultimate player in my brother's class. i have watched him play. I wouldn't say we are buddy buddy, but yes, i know him, and at a school of 50,000 students, he is living this fall with the boy i just met by fluke in a bar full of 200 people.
bars in foreign cities are the ideal place to discover that it is, after all, a very small world.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Dublin!
hello hello from dublin!
anna and i arrived here almost 8 hours ago--which means our flight landed at 5am. there are many benefits to flying early: no customs lines; you get to see the city awake; and you can almost convince yourself that the reason you are so tired is because you "woke" up at 5am, which is an absurd time no matter who you are. we have spend most of the day walking around, having dropped off our bag and registered at our hostel, jacob's inn, which is only a block from the central bus stop. we bought breakfast supplies at the grocery store on our 7:00 to 8:00am stroll through our hostel's neighborhood and then searched for a park to rest in, eventually settingly on the college green at trinity college. after b'fast, we had some tea/hot cocca at a coffee shop, did some journal entries for a good while, and caught up on the sports news from the day before, mainly for me, who is rapidly reentering into my obsession with int'nat'l soccer (DEUTSCHLAND UEBER ALLES!). anna and i are hoping to find somewhere to watch the game tonight between holland and romania or italy and france--either way a good match. if romania wins, they advance, along with the netherlands. if they lose or draw, then france or italy has a chance. should be good stuff.
for those of you uninterested in soccer, dublin has plenty of other things to offer it. its a nice walking city and beautiful old buildings everywhere. having come from nyc, i confess it feels...small scale. but regardless, its a good breaking ground for the behemouth that is berlin, and we are able to get some logistical things done here, in english, that we might find very difficult in berlin or spain (like eurail reservations, figuring out how to use my international cell phone, etc. etc. etc.)
i miss home already, but it feels great to be here. its strange to think that i won't have a "home" from now until the end of august, but somehow that feels appropriate with ending of my bard home and figuring out where my next home will be. lots of x's and o's to all--let me know how you are doing as well.
anna and i arrived here almost 8 hours ago--which means our flight landed at 5am. there are many benefits to flying early: no customs lines; you get to see the city awake; and you can almost convince yourself that the reason you are so tired is because you "woke" up at 5am, which is an absurd time no matter who you are. we have spend most of the day walking around, having dropped off our bag and registered at our hostel, jacob's inn, which is only a block from the central bus stop. we bought breakfast supplies at the grocery store on our 7:00 to 8:00am stroll through our hostel's neighborhood and then searched for a park to rest in, eventually settingly on the college green at trinity college. after b'fast, we had some tea/hot cocca at a coffee shop, did some journal entries for a good while, and caught up on the sports news from the day before, mainly for me, who is rapidly reentering into my obsession with int'nat'l soccer (DEUTSCHLAND UEBER ALLES!). anna and i are hoping to find somewhere to watch the game tonight between holland and romania or italy and france--either way a good match. if romania wins, they advance, along with the netherlands. if they lose or draw, then france or italy has a chance. should be good stuff.
for those of you uninterested in soccer, dublin has plenty of other things to offer it. its a nice walking city and beautiful old buildings everywhere. having come from nyc, i confess it feels...small scale. but regardless, its a good breaking ground for the behemouth that is berlin, and we are able to get some logistical things done here, in english, that we might find very difficult in berlin or spain (like eurail reservations, figuring out how to use my international cell phone, etc. etc. etc.)
i miss home already, but it feels great to be here. its strange to think that i won't have a "home" from now until the end of august, but somehow that feels appropriate with ending of my bard home and figuring out where my next home will be. lots of x's and o's to all--let me know how you are doing as well.
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