One of the good things...

...about being back in Jacksonville is catching up with friends. I am enjoying reminiscing about old times with good people. It's also great to find out what's been going on with everyone for the last two years! There's something awesome about being around people you've known for a while. They know how you are, they know what you think. They laugh when they're supposed to, sympathize when you whine and they don't defend your nemeses. I love it.

So, thanks to all my good old friends for the warm welcome back. My first month has been made easier by your presence.

Complete and Total Paranoia

Again last night I got very little sleep. Now it's tough to determine whether there are actual noises or if my dog has a snoring issue. Whatever the case, I am so paranoid about things in my walls and attic and crawlspace that don't belong there that I am barely sleeping. I think I'll have to go back to Tylenol again tonight. Otherwise, I will start sleeping at my desk while I should be working.

Sooo tired...

The New One

Love my new ride. It's awesome - 2010 Scion xB rocks!

The Wonder of Drugs

Feeling better today. No noises last night. Or, at least not that I heard. Of course, I was in a Tylenol PM-induced coma! I was so thankful to sleep through the night. I think I'll take some again tonight. I'll listen up over the weekend to see if I have a problem. Otherwise, I'm sticking with the comas.

Scratches in the Night

I'm on very little sleep, people. Last night I was awakened by who knows what at 1 AM, and kept awake by something in my wall just scratching away. Managed to fall back asleep at 2 AM somehow, and was awake again from 3-4, just listening to the maddening scratching. I got up and closed the bathroom door because I was convinced that whatever it was would have scratched its way through the wall and ended up inside my bathroom by this morning. I guess I thought it could scratch/eat through tiles too. Not likely.

But I really want to ask: would you be able to sleep once you heard something like that, and if it continued? Would your eyes stay closed and would your heart slow back down? Would you drift back into sleep? I could not. Half insane from sleep deprivation today, I decided this nocturnal activity could not continue or I will go insane for real. I went to Lowe's and bought some poison packs and threw them into the crawl space just before sundown. Here's hoping that solves the problem...

A Quick Hi

to Mark from Texas - I'm glad you and your wife enjoyed Dublin! It truly is a great place. Thanks for reading and best of luck to you both.

The Latest in Jax

I've been settling in OK. Busy busy, as expected. Deep-cleaned the outside of my house on Saturday, car shopping on Sunday, have taken several loads to Goodwill and sold some of my books. I did a huge grocery shop tonight and shouldn't need to go back for some time.

I am enjoying the weather. It's been sunny nearly every single day, bar a few drops of rain during a couple of mornings. It's been a bit colder than most people would like, but I'm fine with it. It's a nice transition prior to the scorching heat that will undoubtedly be here before I'm ready.

I do miss Dublin. I miss wandering around on a Saturday and feeling OK about staying in all day Sunday because of rain. I miss my Dublin pals and my favorite Dublin munchie spots. And I know it sounds funny, but I miss the "old" of Dublin. There are so many buildings there that have been around forever and I miss walking past them every day. It's amazing even being near things like that.

However I am, as mentioned, I am settling in alright. It is really nice to be around old friends and family, and back with my awesome dog Sadie. It's as if she doesn't even remember I was gone! See? That's why dogs are the best. They love you no matter what you do. Even if you move overseas for two years they still love you.

Back in the USA

Well, it's been a week since I got back to Florida. The house is looking better, and I've accomplished some minor stuff during the week and even more this weekend. Still need to drop some things off at Goodwill and take some books to the used book shop, but it's looking better. The shed in my back yard now has a ramp that doesn't break and crack when I walk on it, thanks to my brother and father and nephew, who showed up at my front door like the cavalry this morning. While they were working on that, I worked on the front porch, which looks a wee bit better now. I had to scrape a squished lizard off the tiles with a spade, but it's gone and the place is looking better. Tomorrow I hope to spend an hour or two straightening up the laundry room, which is a collection of badly placed hodge-podge items with no home.

All these things I've needed to do have kept me busy so that I'm not missing Dublin as much as I thought I would. I worry about not having things to do but luckily, as a homeowner, there are usually a lot of tasks to keep a body occupied. Spring will be here soon and there will be yard work galore - lizards and spiders and snakes, oh my. I'll remember why I liked Ireland so much when I see my first snake I'm sure. Ew!

I am pleasantly surprised to be doing as well as I am so far, and even feel happy sometimes. Not so much during morning and afternoon rush-hour driving, but being near lots of friends and family is really nice. It sure is a different lifestyle.

Leaving Dublin (Almost)

Well, the apartment is nearly empty and definitely clean. My bags are packed and ready to go. The cable company will be picking up my internet equipment very soon. And so I write my last blog from this great city. As my time in Dublin is coming to an end, I wonder will there be anything more to write about as I return to Florida. Is anyone even reading this anymore?!

The past two weeks have been the definition of bittersweet. Although I have had so much fun and laughed so much and made the most of my remaining time here, it has been sad to say goodbye to my colleagues that I have come to know and greatly admire. I have to hope I have led the way I wanted to, and helped to establish a firm foundation in our group here. I hope the people I've come to call friends have learned half as much from me as I've learned from them.

Looking back on two amazing years of travel and adventure has also made it hard to depart. I have seen unbelievable places and things that even just a few years ago I could never have imagined as possibilities. Will I still get around and see the world? It's hard to know.

However sad it may seem to leave, I can only say good things about this experience as a whole. It has been a bit of magic in my life, and I know how lucky I am to have had it. I am forever changed, I hope for the better!

View from Killiney Hill

St. Patrick's Park

Perfect Quote

When I die Dublin will be written in my heart.
- James Joyce

Dart to Dalkey

This afternoon Heather and I took the Dart down to Dalkey to meet up with Roisin (Ro-sheen), a girl on my team at work, to watch her field hockey game. Roisin took us around the town to show us where we could eat lunch while she and the team prepared for the game. She showed us Finnegan's Pub, where U2's Bono often has a few pints.


We ate a late lunch at The Queens, and walked to the field to watch the match. It was so much fun! And the school where they played was right on the sea.


After the game, Roisin's sister picked us up and drove us around Dalkey and Killiney Hill. We saw such beautiful scenery, and even got to see Bono's front gate!! It was a great day.

A Warning Sign

Sunrise from Office Window

Last Weekend In Dublin

I can't believe my time is nearly over here in the great city of Dublin. The weather this week has been very cold, but mostly blue sky with sun. Dublin, why must you make me miss you more by spoiling me during my last couple of weeks???

This weekend I'm going to try to hit all the spots I may have missed over the past two years. My goal is to be able to say yes to any question that starts, "When you were in Dublin, did you ever see..."

Tonight I'll meet my team from work for what they call "leaving drinks." Do you think that means they want me to leave after it's over? Sorry! Not getting rid of me for another week, folks!

County Cork and Sally Gap on the Way Back

What a weekend - long and pretty, exciting and lazy, hilarious and sometimes not so funny.


Heather and I hit the road early on Saturday and made our way down the N8, through the dense fog into the Cork sunshine. It was miraculous after being so concerned that we wouldn't see anything through the white clouds nearly touching the earth. Our first stop was the Blarney Castle.






The castle was terrific - it wasn't one like I've visited before, hadn't been refurbished to look the way it once had. Just stood there in its glorious ruin. The rooms were damp and old, and a little bit creepy. It was such great fun, even the part where we climbed old spiral stairs to the top and back down again. We were... um, entertained (?) by a large group of American teenagers being loud, annoying and inappropriate during our visit. They weren't the only ones acting like fools. Witness the brilliance of this tourist:

Read much?

We left the castle and headed toward Kinsale, our final destination of the day. We were starving for lunch and Kinsale is the town that has the best food in Ireland, according to all the guides. Our drive was long, but we finally made it for lunch around 3:30 at Fishy Fishy Cafe, near the pier. It was delicious. The best fried shrimp I have ever eaten - I mean it! Heather had an open sandwich on brown bread, 1/2 shrimp and 1/2 salmon. It was to die for. For dessert, I had a bread and butter pudding that tasted like heaven. If you are ever in Kinsale, you MUST try this restaurant. It's well worth a visit.


After lunch, we wandered the streets of Kinsale, trying to see as much as we could before dark.





What a cute town! We sampled some of the night life after dark, dipping into a wine bar, then back through town to our hotel bar for some live jazz singers (pretty good, I must say). Then we tried to find the castle just for fun but weren't so lucky on our search. Having walked the majority of Kinsale, we went to our rooms and retired for the evening.

Sunday morning we woke up early, had our breakfast at the hotel, then headed up to Charles Fort, going the way we THOUGHT our hotel concierge told us about. We drove up the graveliest, narrowest, steepest and most frightening road I have ever been on, and discovered at the top that our journey could not continue. We had arrived at the top of a steep, narrow road that was blocked at the end. No where to turn around, I prepared myself for a backwards drive down the scariest road ever. Needless to say, I didn't make it too far. The car slipped on the gravel and the back of the passenger side came to rest on a rock wall (fortunately, I suppose, not on the other side, which would have had us sliding down a mountain). Heather called the hotel to try and find out what we should do, and in the meantime, this guy with his dog appeared from around the corner. I asked him if he had any idea how we were supposed to get out of there. He said we had to go back the way we came. I was like, "Right. Well, we would, only the car is now stuck on the rocks and I can't make it move." He asked if I wanted his help and I jumped at the chance. He handed over the dog on the leash and got in the car with Heather (who was stuck in there because her door was on the rock wall). As the guy's dog whined and carried on while he ran me down the hill and while his master expertly navigated the steep, scary hill. He got the car to a turning around point and I told him I had no idea what we'd have done without him, and thanked him with all my heart. He said no one had driven up there for 30 years. My question is, shouldn't the hill be blocked to cars at the BOTTOM???? Before someone gets STUCK AT THE TOP!!! After all that, the damage to the car wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but it was severely scratched where it had hit and scraped on the rocks.

It probably should be funny by now, but I'll wait and see what happens when I return the car to determine just HOW funny it will be.

We did make it to Charles Fort using the route we were supposed to have taken in the first place, and it was really amazing. We were glad we'd made the journey despite the huge debacle of the morning.






We made a few stops on the road back toward Dublin, taking some snapshots along the way.





We drove back home to Dublin through the Wicklow Mountains, via Sally Gap, which was gorgeous but very scary at times. I actually had to drive on snow a couple of times, but other people's cars had been there before me and sort of carved a path, so it wasn't too bad. We got through the winding, narrow roads just as darkness fell. It was perfect timing, thankfully.






Oh, and one more sign we found amusing in Wicklow.

They take dumping and dumpers very seriously.

Perfect Day in Glendalough

OK, so I couldn't feel my legs after a while because of the cold. Despite this strange numbness, the day was beautiful. Sunshine and blue sky. My friend Heather and I had a lovely walk and left feeling more relaxed and refreshed.

The End Is Near

I have never had so much inner conflict. As my days in Ireland are now numbered, I get more and more nostalgic. I have had such an amazing time the past two years. It is still unbelievable to me to look back on all the things I have seen and done during this experience. Never thought I would be here. I spend a lot of time trying not to be sad that it's ending.

An Italian Holiday

I had a bad night of trying to sleep on Thursday, the night before I left. The only success I had at the attempt apparently occurred during my alarm, set for 4AM, going off. I woke up at 6:10 for a 7AM flight. Awesome! Needless to say, the first word out of my mouth that morning was an expletive. I threw on some clothes and high-tailed it to the street with my suitcase. I hailed the first taxi I saw. We got stuck at the first light. And the second. And the third… well, you get the picture. I missed my stupid flight. I had to buy a ticket for the flight leaving at 3PM. I took the bus home and waited until noon to leave again.

Believe it or not, I caught my afternoon flight to Rome and it was a smooth flight, excluding the guy sitting next to me, who continuously snorted and sniffled the whole way to Italy, normally while leaning over me to see out the window. I felt like saying, “Look dude, if you wanted the view you should have requested a window seat.” In his defense, we were flying over the Alps at dusk. Quite a sight.


I had already called the hotel and told them I’d be checking in around 10PM, later than expected. However, catching the first available train to the main Rome train station quickly became an issue due to the miles-long passport control line, and it was barely moving. Missing that train resulted in my missing a train from Rome Termini to Naples, which landed me on the very last train from Naples to Sorrento, watching the graffiti-covered station walls fly by outside of my window. The end result was checking into my hotel at midnight. Luckily, I’d had no firm plans for Friday, so I didn’t feel too terrible about the whole incident. I mean, it certainly wasn’t convenient to miss the flight, but it didn’t wreck the trip or make me miss any sights. Plus, I did have the pleasure of overhearing a conversation between some girl and her boyfriend on the train from the airport to Rome.

Boyfriend: What do you want to see in Rome?
Girlfriend: The Colosseum, St. Peter’s, the Sixteen Chapel…

OMG.

Saturday morning I made my way back to the train station to catch the bus around the Amalfi Coast. I got on the bus and our journey began. It was funny, because I wondered why there weren’t any tourists on the bus. It seemed like a bunch of locals. I should have realized something was up when the five people on the bus all got off at random local stops. We ended up in a place called Nerano, which was beautiful, but looked nothing like I thought Amalfi would be. I asked the bus driver if he was stopping and he said he was, for twenty minutes. So I got out and walked around for a while. When I got back on fifteen minutes later I asked him if it would be obvious when we got to Positano, and he said, “No. We no go to Positano. We go back to Sorrento.” I asked where I could get the bus to Positano and Amalfi and he said I could get it in Sorrento. Super! That was two hours down the drain.




When I got back to Sorrento I decided to get some lunch and walk around instead of getting on another bus. Nerano was pretty, so maybe I didn’t need the Amalfi Coast. I went for lunch at a pretty fancy looking restaurant that was reasonably priced. I had a LOT of bread (it was good!) and some pizza with artichoke and ham (delicious). I couldn’t finish my pizza, and the waiter said “You no finish. What’s wrong-uh?” I said I had eaten too much bread. He brought me a cappuccino and said it would be the best I ever had (it was close) and then he brought me a glass of something he called a digestif, which I had not ordered. He said it would wake me up. I don’t know about waking me up, but it sure scorched the hell out of my throat. Whoah! Anyway, it was on the house, so it was worth a shot. Literally.

I spent the afternoon walking around Sorrento. It’s a beautiful place, like something from a fairytale. The weather, though cold, was sunny and clear and it made for a nice stroll. I explored gorges and hills and narrow alleyways, and saw lemons as big as my head. After walking around for a few hours and a quick nap in the hotel, I went to the restaurant recommended by my hotel for dinner. It was an adorable place, and the staff couldn’t have been nicer. Rocco served me bread (which I ate sparingly this time) and cannelloni and veal. Then for dessert I had a delicious cherry chocolate cake thing. Feeling like a bloated whale, I went back to the hotel and vowed not to repeat the horrifying splurge that had just occurred for the rest of my trip. I spent the rest of my night planning Sunday. I decided to get up extra early and go to Pompeii so that I could be back in Sorrento early enough to get on the right bus for the Amalfi Coast. I decided I couldn’t miss it.






Early on Sunday, I took the train from Sorrento to Pompeii, a city that dates back to the 6th century BC, and which was ruined by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on the 24th of August, 79 AD. At the beginning of my tour, I was the only person on the grounds wandering the ruins of the churches, bakeries, houses and gardens of the city. I met up with the sweetest dog, who ran to me when he saw me and then walked with me for most of the rest of my tour. I wanted to take him home with me. I spent about four hours in Pompeii and saw the most interesting spots.






I had a bite to eat and then went back to Sorrento. I was a little early for the bus, so I went down the street from the train station and had a cappuccino with a heart on it. It started to rain while I was there, but I figured I was going to be on a bus anyway. After that I got on the right bus and saw literally breath-taking, jaw-dropping scenery, even with the nasty weather. I mean it – it was the best scenery I’ve ever seen. Impossibly high cliff roads, with deep gorges with clear blue water at the bottom. Houses built right into cliffs, with swimming pools on the edge of the earth. I couldn’t imagine a week in a place like that, much less to live there. It was absolutely gorgeous. I got off the bus at the Amalfi stop and walked around for as long as I could stand the rain, then went back to Sorrento. The lady at the hotel asked me if I wanted to eat dinner. She wanted to make a reservation for me at “seventeen past thirty.” (AKA 7:30) I had pizza for dinner, and finally tried the limoncello, which was delicious.






Monday morning I took the train to Naples, then got on the fast train to Florence. This was a great train ride, on which I enjoyed scenes of Tuscany outside my window. Unlike Sunday, this was looking much better. Nice, clear blue sky again. I arrived in Florence, went directly to my hotel and checked in. They had upgraded me to a double room for free! I threw my bag in the very nice room, and headed back to the train station to go to Pisa. I was squeezing in a quick peek at the Leaning Tower. Oh man, I never expected to be so amazed by it, but I was totally floored. It was so worth the train ride over. I took about 20 pictures of it and then made my way back to the train station. It was dusk as I rode back to Florence, and about time for dinner as I arrived. I went to a restaurant near the hotel, where I had the very best bruschetta I have ever eaten, and some risotto and asparagus.






Tuesday was my day in Florence, and I started early in the Galleria Accademia, where I saw Michelangelo’s David, displayed larger than life in an atrium, with the morning sunlight shining down on him. After the gallery, I walked on to the Duomo and it was so beautiful. I could see it as I approached, filling the view at the end of the street. This church is huge!! I went inside, walked around and took a walk around the outside before moving on to the Uffizi Gallery in Piazza della Signoria. There I saw paintings I’d seen in Art History class years ago, including the Birth of Venus by Botticelli. It was very humbling.






After a couple of hours wandering through the 45 rooms of the gallery, I walked toward the Arno River. With the blue sky and sunlight, it was a beautiful sight. I took quite a few photos and then crossed the river to Palazzo Pitti, a giant palace bought by the Medici family in the 1500s. There are galleries in the palace today, but I passed, since I’d spent the entire morning in galleries.




After strolling around the south side of the river, I made my way back over to the north side and had some lunch. Pizza – again. I went to the Santa Maria Novella, which was a church located a few doors down from my hotel. It was about 3:30 at that point, so I decided to go back down toward the river and walk around a bit more, killing time until the sunset. I thought the bridges would be beautiful at that time. No disappointment there! The photos do not do the sight justice. The Tuscan hills in the background looking purple in the coming dusk were gorgeous. I met a girl from Chicago on the Santa Trinita bridge. We had a photo shoot and talked about how much we loved Italy. After a quick rest at the hotel, I went for dinner and met an Australian couple and a group of American girls who kept me company through my entire meal. I spent a few minutes sitting on a bench outside my hotel, staring at the Santa Maria Novella and thinking how this was my last night on my last trip and how amazing this whole past two years has been and how much I’ve seen and how lucky I’ve been. It was a special moment.






As I began packing my suitcase for my homeward journey, I turned on my phone to set the alarm and found that I had received a text message at 8:52 PM from the airline. My flight back to Dublin had been cancelled due to an Irish Aviation Authority strike. Reluctant to take the text message as the final word, I began to panic and try to find a computer to get to the internet to confirm. The receptionist in my hotel sent me two doors down to a sister hotel which had internet. Unfortunately I couldn’t get it to work, even after trying once, waiting an hour and trying again. I went back to my hotel and decided to take the train to Rome anyway, since I’d already bought my train ticket, and find a hotel once I got there.

I took the train to Rome and headed outside the station, hoping to see a giant Marriott or Hilton or some other reputable American chain hotel to stay in. No luck, so I went back inside the station and into a book store there to look at some tourist guidebooks for some advice. I found a recommended hotel that was nearby the train station but not too close where it would be noisy and dangerous. So I walked over to it and into the reception. They had a room and I checked in. It was a little cheap compared to what I usually pay, and I should have turned around at that moment, but I didn’t want to have to keep wandering the streets with my suitcase in tow. The room was alright, but certainly not of the caliber I usually require. It sucks not being able to research and plan someplace to stay online prior to getting somewhere. But it was only one night, so I sucked it up, dropped in my suitcase and headed out to the hop-on hop-off bus.

I spent the day riding around Rome in the bus, remembering the fun I’d had there and all the amazing things I saw from my trip nearly two years ago. It was interesting to go back to where I started my travels at the end of my European experience. I had a very nice lunch and walked to the Trevi Fountain. This time I actually threw a coin in, ensuring my future return to Rome. It seems it wasn’t necessary the last time! Anyway, that was my last unplanned day in Italy.






It was nice, but I was ready to get home. And with a little luck, I finally made it on Thursday afternoon.