Cork!

No no no, for once I'm not talking about a wine bottle! 

Just hanging out in the South of Ireland, enjoying it to it's fullest extent...

We arrived around 1030 last night on the bus from Dublin, were supposed to stay with a guy from CS that didn't answer my texts, so we headed to a hostel with alll our stuff (like a 20lb bag each, plus backpacks with laptops. Uphill. Nighttime. FUN!) thinking they would have rooms available, but homeboy wanted to charge us 22 euro each!

"F that!" we said, and trotted off down the road to Sheila's (possibly Aussie? It's on Melbourne road..Kiwi? Whateva.) and booked 2 sweet beds in a dorm for 10 euro. Score!

Met a cool Aussie, walked around the city center laughing at drunk people and getting free hugs, then to bed for a bit of rest before my really super convenient phone interview at 9am! There was lots of coffee involved.

We wandered around the city today (verrrryyyy tiny, but I really love it!) and by city, I sorta mean Primark. Well, Penney's. Seriously, they need to bring this goodness overseas! 

Had some spicy Indian chicken madras, and now off to hang at our couchsurfer's house- he's a pretty cool guy and is in a band! Woo!

Photo of said Madras:

Luck of the Irish

Means that it looks nice outside, but by the time you put your shoes and jacket on and walk out that door, its completely pouring. Grr Ireland, grr!

The last couple of days have been really good, just exploring Dublin and spending WAY too much time researching and begging people to give me interviews. One of my most important sources is only giving me 20 minutes! I better be prepared..

I went on a tour of the city yesterday and met some cool people, then encouraged them to stay at my hostel so I would have someone to hang out with! Smooth.. one of the guys just graduated from school in Arkansas, and is getting ready for med school in Texas, and after he wants to go abroad to offer medical help to underdeveloped nations. Heart of gold, I tell you!

The guide was really cool too, though I felt bad for him putting so much effort into a free tour where he is completely dependent on tips, and the crowd was just boring. I talked to him for awhile though, but I noticed that since most of the audience was American, I think there was a reason no one understood his jokes.

If I had come on the tour straight from the US, prior to learning as much as I have this year, I think I would have been clueless to about 50% of what he was saying. (Thank you, US public school system..) so even though the tour is free, they may want to rethink just how MUCH information they are regurgitating, as it may not be the best crowd pleaser. 

Anyway, things are good and I have interviews the rest of the week!

The smallest of worlds..

So, despite the other shit I went through and awkward feelings aside, something really fantastic did happen to me!

On Saturday we spend the day on a tour that gave us an hour at the Cliffs of Moher (pics to come!) walking about, possibly considering suicide, the usual. And despite the weather, there were still hundreds of people there. 

Ok hold up, lemme back track. I met a guy in Prague named Gus, the awesome Aussie who is spending a year traveling the world. For some reason, we really clicked, got along great, and he just has a heart of gold; one of the sweetest guys I've EVER met!

He was supposed to contact me when he was in Denmark, but never did. I tried getting ahold of him on facebook, but no luck. Then I saw that he was in Ireland, and still no response. I thought, whatever, he's a busy guy and will contact me someday. 

So back to Saturday, I had ditched creeper man to walk around on my own, and was wishing I was back in Prague with the cool kids I met there, Gus being one of them. Eventually we had to get back to the bus, and I was walking by a group of people, I looked up, and there he was! The Aussie, in the flesh!

After the way I was feeling, it was the perfect thing for me! We just looked at each other in shock, and hugged for about 5 minutes. I was soo happy to see him! We caught up a bit, then I really had to get back, but the day had improved, and my faith in humanity was restored.

He could be anywhere in the world, let alone the same country as me, the same island, the same tourist attraction, and the same side of mountain... I don't know why or how things like this work out, but I think I will be smiling about it for the next week.

On another note, I'm pretty sure my hostel is haunted. Still better than Creepervile, Brazil

Couchsurfing FAIL!

So, if you didn't know, I'm kinda obsessed with the couchsurfing phenomenon. 

The basics are people let other people sleep on their couches, as a free place to stay but also an amazing way to get to know others, who are, many times, other internationals.

While planning for Ireland (where I currently am, yee-haw!) I contacted a bunch of people, and got some things set up, and was really stoked to not be spending tons of money!

So I was supposed to meet up with my first host on Thursday morning, and he happened to be an HOUR late. Good start, buddy. He is (was? he's not dead, but I will never speak to him again!) Brazilian, so maybe it's in his nature. Anyway, he also failed to tell me he doesn't live IN the city, so we had to take the slowest metro EVER to get there. Oh, and one more thing.

His roomies don't know that he hosts couchsurfers!

Really? More information that would have been important to me YESTERDAY! (Wedding Singer? Anyone? Bueller?) Anyway, so he told me to lie to his roomies (3 girls) and say I was a friend of a friend, which already made me feel uncomfortable. The first night he went to work and I wandered about the city, then we met up at a pub to watch karaoke/football. It was going ok until later when we met up with one roomie and her boyfriend...or sort of.

We went to some young kids club where every girl wore dresses that barely covered anything of importance on their bodies, and i think the average age was 15. Maybe 13. I felt like an old maid. Nevertheless, a ton of drama ensued around the fact that the guy is married with 2 kids and refuses to leave his wife but is in love with the girl, and her crying to me and telling me she is in love with him but it makes her suicidal and oh yea, her eggo might be prego. DRAMA CENTRAL! 

The next day we went off to Galway, and it was the longest, most silent 3 hours of my life. This guy just made me feel AWKWARD. I had woken up that morning to a text from him (he had gone to work early) saying "Hello sleeping beauty! You look very pretty when you sleep." CREEPER. My all time biggest fear is people watching me sleep. Eeesh. No thank you. I wasn't afraid of him, but just had NO desire to be near him. Why I went to Galway, I don't know. Momentary lapse of judgement on my part.

Anyway, we got there and met up with the other CS guy we were staying with, who was super cool! I was so so thankful for him, and was able to talk with him instead of the Brazilian. Later that night we went out and met up with some of his post-grad colleagues, where I immediately felt like the stupidest person in the universe. They were all working on their PhDs in ENGINEERING! Brainiacs. 

After that we headed to an Erasmus party, where I felt much more at home with people my age and at the same point in their lives. After awhile, Brazilian decided to tell me "how happy I make him" and that he "really likes me." YUCK! For me being such a b**ch to him, I don't see how it was possible, but whatevs, guess I have that effect on people. So, true to Sarah, I kinda of yelled at him and told him to leave me alone, and it kinda worked.

So the NEXT day, we took an all day tour of the area around Galway, the Burren/Cliffs of Moher, etc. We left at 9 am. Spent all day on the bus where he continued to sit next to me although there were tons of free seats. No talking. Me walking away from him. Obviously not interested. Ew. 

Then we had dinner with the guy we were staying with (who was really cool, no creepy, very mature, and had a cute German roomie ;)  ) and then met up with some other CSer's (so I didn't have to be alone with him) and then I said F this, I'm going to sleep. So I did. 

Sunday he headed back to Dublin early to make it to a birthday party that I was supposed to go to, but I knew I couldn't handle it so I stuck around Galway for the day, walking around the city in the pouring rain, and went back to Dublin in the evening. Being soaked to the bone was worth it for 6 hours of freedom.

When I got back Sunday night, I just headed straight to his house, grabbed my pack, and got the hell out of there! Back to my hostel I went :)

All in all, it was a REALLY unfortunate experience.

I know if you read this Mom you will be freaking out, but be assured that I am SAFE! I was never threatened by this guy, just creeped out. The other times I've done couchsurfing have been such great, great experiences that I was pissed it turned out like that. Nevertheless, I will definitely give it another go but make sure to A. choose females, B. not go alone, and/or C. get the hell out when I don't feel comfortable. No matter what the cost!

F the postal service!

When winter break came around and I was going to the UK with the girls, I had too much stuff to carry on said crappy cheap airlines, so I sent a duffle bag to Mads in Denmark, sure it was to arrive before I got there.

Little did I know, the post office has it in for me.

Apparently, they dropped the bag off when he wasn’t home, but left a note so he went online, followed the instructions (Danish, of course!) and asked them to leave the bag at his doorstep on the next delivery time, whether or not he was home. Well, instead of doing this, stupid DPD sent the bag BACK to the Netherlands!

I had Mads on one phone trying to get a tracking number from the Danish side, and Emiel on the other trying to get a Dutch tracking number.

Nevertheless, nothing worked out in my favor. I called twice a month for the last 4 months, and eventually some lady SNAIL MAILed me a form to fill out about my bag, and a fax number to send it to. Weeks later, I keep calling and they say if an “investigation is being launched” they have no way to look up the info. BS!

So, almost 5 months after the initial sending of said bad luck package, Emiel gives it one last shot for me. And what does he find out? There is no fax number to send these forms to, so some lady lied to me. TNT Post has no idea what they are doing with their lives, and failed to tell me that there is a DPD Post in the NL as well, and that I could have called them. And between their Dutch speaking frenzy, Emiel got a form mailed to his parents who filled it out, and within 5 days they had my package, and now it is safe back at Mad’s house, its original resting place. Now that I’m in Ireland.

REALLY SARAH!?!?! Cool life you live.

Dublin Debacle

So Europe is known for their low-fare airlines that travel to and from every city imaginable (albeit far from the city center, usually over an hour.) Well I’ve had my fair share of troubles with them
-Missing my flight in Spain and paying a small fortune to just to get back to Utrecht, or waiting 2 days.
-Sleeping at London Stansted (hour outside) to catch a flight to Århus in the wee hours of the morning. Arrival in Århus: yet another hour bus ride to the center
-Flying from Prague to London Luton (Yes, another hour outside the city, with a bus I paid for through the airline that was late, I was crammed in the middle seat of the front row with the driver touching me every time he shifted gears, and who didn’t speak English.)
-Flying from London to Copenhagen, where they would give extraordinary long directions in Danish, and then breeze over the English version of the safety instructions, as though we didn’t need to be prepared for an emergency!)

When I say ‘low-far,’ I really mean LOW fare! The first time I looked for flights from Billund (1.5 hours outside Århus) to Dublin, they were only 39 DKK! Meaning, around 6 dolla dolla bills.

In THEORY these airlines are a good idea. In practice, they rid you of any semblance of confidence you had in your self, your life savings, and trust in mankind in general.

They trick you into thinking you are getting such a good deal, when what you really get is a series of hidden charges and bureaucratic messes. First, baggage. Max you can have for a carry on is 10 kg, (close to 20lbs, I think) including EVERYTHING-purse, jacket, laptop, camera-whatever. I overheard a man saying he had to pay an extra 3 euro just for his jacket, though they said if he was WEARING it, he wouldn’t have to pay. If you want to check a bag (not recommended) you pay another fee, another $25 or so, for only 15 kg (33lbs)!! After that, you can only buy extra baggage weight for 2 kg for 6 euro.

Then, online check-in. Considerably less expensive than checking in at the counter, yet last time I checked in at the counter and all was well. This time, I tried to do self check-in, was marked “inadmissible” (goodbye, confidence..) and had to wait in a separate line to pay ANOTHER 20 euro to check in at the airport. What? Apparently it’s RyanAir law.

Add sporting equipment, baby stroller, first to board the plane, and insurance, and you’re basically broke. Using a VISA card is another $5.

For me, what went from being less than $50 quickly added up to around $130, including bus to the airport. FML.

Happy Mother's Day!

After thinking it was sometime in March because that's what they do in London, and then realizing it wasn't last Sunday like the rest of Europe, it finally dawned on me that today is the day!

This is a shout out (big ups) to my Mama, for I love her dearly. There just aren't enough words in the English language (Or Danish, Dutch, Spanish...) so, I'm just here to say I LOVE YOU!! because really, I do. Thank you for being you, and being everything you are to me.
PS...If I left alcohol out of my post like you asked, I don't think I would have anything to say :)

Crazy Arhusians!

So while today (Friday) is the national holiday 'Great Prayer Day' (Store Bededag), yesterday was a scene of utter chaos! A weird mix of the San Francisco Love Parade, Bay 2 Breakers, the Easter Big Wheel race and a typical sunny day in Dolores Park came Kapsejladsen at Århus university. 

Check out a video from 2007:

Complete craziness. It was pretty ugly outside when we first showed up, but there were still thousands of people there.

Basically, all of the faculties (departments) have their own team, and all have pretty extravagant introductions, with the economics faculty even bringing 2 strippers! Then the race begins, where they paddle one boat across the river, drink a beer, run around it 5 times, then have to paddle back and the relay continues. The medical school has one for the last 8 years, and while economics was a close second, they took the lead again this year.




People gather around the lake in the middle of the university and dorms, and drink and watch the festivities. After a bit of rain, the sun made its grand appearance, and all was right in the world once again. So we sat, watched, cheered, gossiped, and had a great time until around 5, when the races are over and people split off and find their own parties to go to.

The crazies thing is, it's all on CAMPUS! Excessive drinking, booths selling food and alcohol, naked girls, electronic music, and people peeing in the lake. No supervision by security or a higher authority- just good, wholesome uni students enjoying themselves. That would never fly in the good ol' US of A!

We headed to the Theological faculty, where everyone was partying in the common room, and my friend was playing Backstreet Boys on the piano. We met these 2 girls who were stoked about some boy band playing at a mall around the corner, so we thought, "what the heck, it's free- let's go!" and made our way over.

Weirdest experience ever.

It was this Danish Muslim boy band (apparently its hip hop?) called Outlandish and I attempted to understand what was going on, but it never really worked out. There were tons of people there, but everyone was really quiet- it was so weird! Some random cheers, but everyone sat there like they had no idea what was happening. I mean, neither did I, but I made the best of it and danced along!

So Outlandish.


Emiel and I with the random girl who brought us...


This guy was the weirdest. Old man holding a sack of potatoes in a precarious position.

Well, we got the hell out of there, found our bikes and rode to the city center to meet Martin and Anders, then went to place called "Under Construction" because it was opening night and they were giving out free shots, but it was close to being the worst place ever, playing Jason Mraz and then hip hop, and there were only 4 other people in there. With a doorman. And 3 bartenders. ??

Then we went to Kurt's Mor, my all-time favorite Århus haunt, with the most character of any bar I've been to. Listened to crazy Danish music, saw some creepy guy from the Bazaar, made a friend that looked like Peter Griffin, and oh yea- watched 2 bar fights. Good times! When you start drinking at 3pm, sometimes you just don't know when to call it a night.

Oslo: Awesome capital of Scandinavia (part 1)

Of course, like every other time I travel to a new place, I am going to rave about how stark raving AWESOME Oslo is! 

At first I was a bit skeptical about the whole trip, being that Norway is without a doubt the most expensive place, ever, in the world.

Anyhooter, we ended up gathering 9 of us to hit the road up north last Thursday, so we split gas in the cars 5 ways, and the ferry tickets were only a fraction of the cost. Yeehaw! 

Steffi, Guri, Hanna,  Nina, Emiel, Adelija, Simona, Alberto, and I

Hirtshalls Harbor, Northern Denmark

In addition, all the shopping on the ferry is tax free, and while I formerly thought this was a waste of space, time, and money, my thoughts changed when it became clear that we could buy a bottle of vodka for 20 euro, while in Norway it is closer to 35. Good call, Color Line.

 Gloriousness of tax free shopping...

It took 2 hours to drive to Hirtshalls harbor from Århus, then we waited in an awesomely not awesome line for 2 hours to get on the ferry, and then is was 4 hours of FUN! Thank god for motion sickness pills, or I would have been barfing up a storm on that thing.

This is the windblown look...rawr.

So what I thought of a ferry was a crummy large boat with plastic seats and screaming children, but this baby was like a mini cruise ship! 4 hours of decadence, tax free goods, beautiful views, and only one screaming child, who happened to wake me up. GRRR.

Arrived in Larvik, Norway, and headed to Baerum  (Guri's hometown) to drop her off and rearrange our stuff before driving the rest of the way to Oslo to continue our adventures.

Of course, none of our stupid Danish sim cards worked there. So, we had to use the Danish, Spanish, Lithuanian, and Dutch ones, costing a fortune and making things uber difficult. The main problem: WHERE TO STAY?!

As of Wednesday afternoon, we had nowhere to stay. Cheap(-ish) hostels were booked, no apartments to split, and Couchsurfing just didn't come through. Until Wednesday at 10pm, when all of a sudden CS paid off, and we had too many places to stay! Wherein lied another problem.. how to split 8 of us between different places???

Alberto stayed with some family friends in the ritzy neighborhood by the Palace, Emiel and Adelija stayed with a complete stoner man, and Steffi, Hanna, Simona, Nina and I were hoping to meet up with someone.

Eventually we got to Frode's house, ate some quick grub, then he took us to an art gallery (weird, weird stuff: eyeballs hanging from the ceiling as birds, sketches of a woman  having an abortion, and rice on the floor in the shape of a vagine, complete with blood. I had no idea what to think, but to each his own...)

First night at Frode's, cool artist flat in Grunerlokka.

We got the hell out of there, but then all of a sudden Norway decided to be REALLY COOL and not allow people (us) into bars if we weren't 23. Whaaaaaattt??? I already waited 21 long years buddy, but whatever. After 3 misses, Nina and I called it a night and went back to sleep, while the others went to party at Villa. Norway got ever COOLER when they all came home at 4am, turned on music and continued to talk as loud as possible, and then Simona brought up gay adoption rights, and I gave up the idea of a good night's sleep. 

Friday was the day for exploration! Guri sort of mentioned a bit about May Day, but said only there would be people protesting for the legalization of pot. Little did we know, as we walked to the city, we encountered the biggest parade/protest of the year! From every street and every direction, more and more people came, with signs about anything and everything, megaphone and marching bands. And claustrophobia for me.

  Really fun when you can't read what the signs say...
  Coolest marching bands! Playing ABBA!
  Clueless.

So the parade hampered our travel time a bit, but it was the best weather I have seen in ages, and was stoked on life. Not just sunny, but warm warm warm, close to 75, and I got a sunburn! Crazy times. 

So we met up with everyone at the Central Station (junkie haven, btw.) and did all the major sightseeing, with Martin, who was Emiel and Adelija's host, and probably high all day.

First we went to the Akershus Fortress overlooking the harbor and apparently a popular sunbathing hangout.
Group photo! Minus Martin, weirdo...
 Fortress/solarium
Harbor area, full of pirate ships! Yippeee

After that, we headed by the city hall up to the Royal Palace, to eat lunch and bask in the sun.

Giant palace, complete with tourists and Norwegian flag (EVERYWHERE!)

View from top of Palace, looking towards the city.

Nina and I, suckers for a guy in uniform...

Simona and Sarah enjoying the sunshine

Rested for a bit, then headed more north up to the sculpture park, Vigelund, and were thoroughly impressed. So much bigger than I thought, and overflowing with people, dogs, babies, and BBQs, basically all of my favorite things! 

There are over 200 statues, portraying various human activities, though some seem overtly sexual, but I'm okay with that. 

Thinking we're cool...not so sure.
 Wrought iron gate guarding the Monolith.
River flowing through the park
Main fountain
Boys will be boys...

Setting sun, leaving the park.


Some of my favorites

The park was great, but soon it was time for dinner, where we parted ways, only to meet up later that night at the Palace, where the fun began! 

We then went to the place Guri was staying with her boyfriend and his best friend, and hung out until we went out to Mono, and met up with Ola, our new couchsurfing friend we didn't get to stay with the first 2 nights.

Nina headed back to Frode's later that night (around 230) thinking we would have an okay night of sleep...until they came home 5 minutes later with friends, and stayed up drinking in the living room area until 630, which was just not so great! Glories of couch surfing continue...

Saturday. The weather was TERRIBLE, but we took a ferry to Hovedøya island, where an old monastery was build and is semi-preserved. It was really pretty, but when it started raining, us girls called it quits and the boys attempted to explore around the other parts of the island.

Old Monk fortifications

Had brief dinner at Frode's house after we ran into him at the supermarket, but decided it was time to move to Ola's house for the night, for *hopefully* better sleep, and possibly some better conversation, as we didn't feel so welcome at Frode's place. 

To be continued..................