If the every culture and place were exactly the same, traveling would be a dull experience as the traveler would see the same in every city and countryside visited. However, this not being the case it is warranted under this premise for me to make comparisons and note different details between each city I visit and in contrast with home.
Part of traveling alone leads one to be constantly asked the question “Where is home?” (more or less stated in this way) by every person one meets. A simple question but I tend to have a complex answer if I feel it is appropriate to provide the long answer. Home is where Mom and Dad live, truthfully answer would be in the East Bay of California, but San Francisco normally suffices. Home is also to a lesser extent Berkeley, where I’ve made my first steps outside of the protective womb of my parental home, as well as graduated University (Or as all the Australians I’ve met simply call it “Uni”). Even then the answer isn’t complete, home is also a less visited location where, as many of my friends already know, my heart and pride lay, which is of course the Netherlands, more specifically, Vinkeveen (where Oma lives!).
It’s rare any one random encounter I have receives such full explanation but it is a subject worth dwelling on.
Now on to the travels I’ve made so far:
After a smooth sailing flight from San Francisco to Philadelphia and onward to Dublin, Ireland, a bus brought me to the center of Dublin. I managed to find my way to Barnacles Hostel in the middle of the Temple Bar district. And yes, I am in Ireland after all, Bar was no euphemism, I would be sleeping smack down between all of Dublin’s busiest Pubs and Bars. This would turn out to be quite beneficial.
I stowed my rucksack at the hostel so that I may discover the city. A delicious breakfast, a museum on Dublin’s history and several photos later, I wound up on a free 3 hour walking tour of the city (Sandeman’s New Europe tours run in all mayor cities in Europe, and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting a city for the first time neweuropetours.eu). This is where my fun in Dublin takes off. Tour guide Ciaren was a blast and hearing the lesser known facts of a city from the perspective of a hometown hero is fantastic. Once the tour was complete I could finally check in to the hostel and take that long awaited shower (traveling and walking around for 30 hours will make one want that badly). Dinner that night was on the other side of the city with a mutual friend of a friend, Chris Heemskerk, a member of team Google in Dublin. On my trek back to the city center I witnessed the quieter and more homely side of Dublin’s neighborhood’s not often visited by the tourist and traveler, thus quiet enjoyable. Upon return at the hostel, I ran into Daniel, who was also on the walking tour. Visiting from Mexico City, we sparked up a conversation about football (read Soccer for Americans), and promptly decided to go to some of the bars. In a stroke of coincidence we ran into our tour guide Ciaren, who slapped some Pub Crawl wristbands on us, and ensured the rest of the night was a great deal of fun.
Needless to say, when I woke up the next morning at 8am, I was ready to take on the day. The remainder of my time in Dublin was spent meeting amazing people such as my hostel roommate Russ, visiting from South Africa, and a group of Spaniards and Argentinians on the bar crawl the following night. Russ is a blooming musician spending his nights in Dublin at open mics singing to his hearts content (I wasn’t able to make it both nights but listening to him the room was fun). Together, Russ and I visited Trinity College, Ireland’s oldest university. There we saw displayed a sculpture looking oddly familiar to similar structure in Berkeley. (Turns out it was the same artist too!) Additionally, I saw my first live Cricket Match, the Book of Kells and the school library which is the basis for George Lucas’ Jedi Library in the Star Wars Series.
Later that day I went to pay a visit to the Guinness Brewery and Storehouse. The tour was great (and free thanks to my Dublin Pass). At the end a free pint of Guinness awaits, and to my surprise I found Colin Austin, a Northgate High School classmate, at the top of the brewery. We caught up, shared plans of our perspective Euro trips, and drank a pint while enjoying the view of Guinness’s 360 viewing deck. The Old Jameson Distillery tour was next on my list, although in my opinion the tour was a bit too cheesy and touristy for me (but hey free drink at the end as well).
Early Thursday morning I had all my belongings packed, and I began the trek to Dublin port, which the guy at the lobby guaranteed me would take no more than half an hour. After an hour’s walk, I hailed a taxi and found myself to be one of the very last ones entering the ferry before it departed to Wales. The experience was a very happy one, I was in a very blissful mood watching beautiful Ireland slowly disappearing from the back of the boat. From Wales I travelled to London by train, watching the picturesque green fields filled with sheep go by (just as depicted in the movies). My arrival in London around 4pm was rather shocking. Never before have I seen such a hustling and bustling city, men in business suits running full sprint to catch their trains, and all other forms of haste occurring around me. A quick phone call to friend Bharath in one of London’s famous red call boxes and I was on my way to him in the borough of Brent. A day’s travel came to an end with some dinner and a hot shower.
Friday, Bharath had work to go to but we agreed to meet afterwards for dinner and a bar crawl. He suggested I take London in by borrowing his bicycle. A very grand idea I agreed, until I realized the sheer immensity of this metropolitan area as I was biking towards New Europe’s walking tour with no map or Internet capability on my phone. It was drizzling and I had a bit of an adventure finding Hyde Park. When I did arrive, I was already 15 minutes late, but none the less, I managed to find the walking tour as they were heading to Buckingham Palace (god save the queen!). After the tour I enjoyed a great bike ride along the Thames River, collecting such tourist sites as the Queen Elizabeth II tower (what I called the Big Ben, and was quickly and thoroughly explained by a Londoner as incorrect since that is the name of the bell inside the tower), the Eye (Ferris wheel), the buildings of Parliament and much more. As I was biking I heard my name yelled and there was my PhD candidate friend Bharath. Dinner and bar crawl ensued. London wasn’t my very city ever after that night.
Saturday, Bharath and I biked all around London and he changed my opinion on this city and I’ve come to like it much more. Unfortunately my computer seems to have plummeted into dismal abyss, so no pictures with this blog post for now as I am borrowing Bharath’s computer. In other news, good friend Eviane (from Berkeley and Model United Nations) came back to London last night from Berlin and Sunday now awaits us. My apologies for the long long post of my week but I hope it was an enjoyable read none the less. Until next time! (pictures coming soon!)
