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 :)