Well, it's been a while since I've written in this Journal. It's hard to sum up a month of traveling stories in one entry, but here's a go.

I flew out of Denver on the 25th of March, arrived in London on the 26th in the morning. That afternoon I had a flight to Dublin Irealnd. I met up with Andrew at the airport in London. He was easy to recognize with his raggy hippy clothes and goofy hat. Just kidding, he's actually a really good guy.

How I know Andrew:

He and I met in Guatemala. We hung out for a day or so during Semana Santa (March '07) in the town of Antigua. We're both on Facebook so we exchanged information. A month or so later he sends a message saying he may attempt Africa in 2008. I tell him I'm down to go if he's serious. He was.

So we arrive in Dublin. Not one of my favorite places simply because there's not anything to do durning the day. Everything happens at night. There's a place called Temple Bar, an area where there's at least 25 bars. Andrew and I went there on the night of the 26th. We saw some live music and drank a few pints. Walking down those streets I had some flashbacks to when I was here the first time in '05. Happy times.

We spent too long in Dublin, about five or six days. As always with hostels, we ended up making a couple of friends who we probably wont ever see again. But it's the memories that count.

From Dublin we went southwest to Kilkenny. I've also been here before. Just another tourist trap. Not a whole lot going on. From Kilkenny we went further west to Kilarney. Kilarney is on the Ring of Kerry, which is road that goes around the most beautiful green stretch of land you can imagine. We rented some bikes and set off. We ended up at a massive waterfall, climbed on the rocks, hoping from one to the other avoiding falling in the water. We took the bikes out again and came to a fairly large cliff on a lake. We climbed the side of it. I attempted to swim in the freezing water while a fisherman in a boat laughed at me.

Then we went up north, near Galway, to the Doolin. This was our best experience in Ireland. At the hostel we hung out with some Brazilians, an Aussie, an Irish, and a hippy American girl. One night the stars came out and we all decieded to collect our blankets from the hostel and walk in to a feild to lay out and see them. The hippy girl said she knew the perfect place near the ocean. It ended up being a two mile walk into the middle of nowhere. We had one flashlight between all of us and we walked directly into some cows. We walked a bit away from the cows, hopped a few more stone fences, and threw the blankets. The stars were beautiful and we lay there until we all fell asleep. Then came the rain. Ha! Nobody saw the clouds roll in. It was freezing walking back.

We also hiked out to the Cliffs of Moher while we were staying in Doolin. I've mentioned the Cliffs several times before on this blog. It's one of my favorite places ever. It's a few miles of walking along the shore to get there, but the hike itself is what I like best. It's dangerous, it is. Walking along seven hundred foot cliffs, right on the edge. But it's such a thrill and so beautiful. The actually cliff sight seeing area has changed since I was last there. There's a complete tourist centre and museum now with people flowing in by the busload. It was horrible, the tourists have ruined it. There's even a fence 30 feet away from the edge. Wasn't like the first time I was here. There was nothing and nobody, just beautiful Cliffs. I'm glad I got to see it before it was ruined. At least the hike there still exists, for now.

From Doolin we went to Northern Ireland (UK). Fairly uneventful. Walked across a large rope bridge and went to the Giants Causway. The Causway is pentagot shaped rocks lining the shore. It's very neat but still super touristy.

Our flight was out of Dublin back to London. In London we met up with some other students that Andrew met in Guatemala. They live in student housing right on Oxford Street near Marble Arch, the dead centre of London. A fantastic location. We had a blast there. We stayed on Seb's floor in his small room and hung out with five other friends during our four day visit. It was a killer time. London is one of those places I can see my self living but will never do it because it's too damn expensive. I love london.

From London we went north (weird considering we want to get to Africa) to Edinburgh, Scotland. I've lived here for a few months in '05 and a few months last year in '07 so I knew my way around, well enough at least. I was going to stay with one of my friends there but that didn't end up working out. The hostel that we stayed at I actually found a really good friend I met last year, but it was only in passing that we said hello to eachother.

We only stayed in Edinburgh for two days, enough time to drink a few pints and eat some Haggis. Some very good flashbacks here as well. From Edinburgh we had to take a train to Glasgow to catch a flight to Barcelona. I underestemated how long it took to get to the airport and we almost missed the flight. They were closing the check-in as we arrived. Sprinting through an airport with a fourty pound backpack isn't fun, but it is exciting.

In Barcelona, Spain we were trying to find a hostel and some Rasta guy (he introduced himself has Baby Rasta) came up to us and told us he had a place to stay. We were weary of him at first but his place was really chill. It was a small apartment near the Ramblas (centre of town) and he had thrown together a few bunk beds. There were two other travelers in the apartment when we arrived. A hippy Canadian girl and a very quiet French girl who nobody seemed to get along with. Go figure. Baby Rasta was very giving with his food as well as booz and joints. Five minutes after arriving he offered us a drink from his flask. We liked him immedietly. We stayed at his place in Barcelona for four of five nights.

From Barcelona we tried hitchhiking to Valencia, about 300 kilometers. After standing on the roadside the better part of two days with our cardboard sign (VALENCIA!) and only making it half way (as well as being told off by the police) we just took the train the rest of the way. Nobody in Spain likes to pick up. The people who did pick us up were from Honduras, Ecuador and Venizuela. The train ended up being super cheap so it wasn't so bad.

I've been to hundreds of cities and Valencia is definitely in the top 3. It's pretty, relaxed, has fantastic topless beaches and parks and the weather is perfect - also, the nightlife is top notch. We found a nice hostel in the city centre and met up with many other travelers. In the night times we played drinking games in the kitchen (a 48 pack of beer is only 12 Euro!) until we decided either to go out to a club/bar or we got too smashed to go out and went to bed.

We didn't know which city to head to next. All we knew is that we wanted to go South. We went to the train station, checked the map, train times and decided on Granada. The train left at 1am Saturday night and arrived at 9am in Granada Sunday morning. We had breakfast, found a nice hostel in the 'old' district and went to sleep seeing as we only got a few hours on the train. In the evening we played some card games with people at the hostel, listened to music.

And that leads us up to Today, April 28th 2008