3/1

So finding a comfortable place to sleep has been a problem thus far into my trip. The plane was the most uncomfortable place ever and I got a sore neck from the only hour I actually managed. First night here, the guy we were borrowing the air mattress from was out of town and I had to try to stick with tiny couch cushions. Last night, we got the air mattress only to find that it had a small leak. I woke up pretty much on the floor on top of a deflated air mattress and my back is really stiff. Hopefully I can figure something out today. Maybe I’ll look for a sleeping bag.

Went to Blarney Castle yesterday and kissed the Blarney stone. It’s funny about this because when you kiss it, there is a camera thing there that takes a picture of you kissing it - the guys working there (what a job) give you a hand when it comes to kissing it because it’s really dangerous to get to. You have to dangle backward over a spooky castle ledge holding on to two metal bars built to give you a grip. Whoever designed it was a real jokester. Anyways, the guys who work there, after you kiss the stone, they give you a redemption tag that you bring to the front sales desk where you can preview the pictures they took of you and it is supposed to cost you 10 Euros to get an actual printout of the picture…10 euros? seriously? So…our natural solution was to use my digital camera and take a picture of the tv screen that my picture was demonstrating. We’re proud of that one. It officially marked my first touristy thing that I’ve done here. Afterward I went to my first Irish Pub and had my first Guinness in Ireland…TASTY!

I’m not quite sure what the plans are for today. I’m exhausted from all this running around and not sleeping well, but I’m excited to do all this cool stuff at the same time. We got our tickets to Scotland yesterday. We fly into Glasgow next Saturday and plan on taking the train to Edinburgh. We’re only gonna be there like three days, but we’re probably just going to walk around the city and take pictures - I don’t know what we’d do there for longer than that. Nonetheless, before I left America I told myself that I was going to do everything in my power to see Scotland, Greece, and Prague…so far, that’s one down and I’ve still got over a month left. Fei Fei and I are going to be traveling a lot when her spring break rolls around on the 13th of March. We’re doing St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin, and for sure going to be in Rome and Spain for a little bit - where else, I’m not quite sure. But Hopefully I’ve still got enough money in my account by then.

I’ve been taking pictures like crazy, however haven’t had a chance to load them onto my computer. I’ll be sure to post them soon.