Leaping Leprechauns!

I'm now writing from Ireland, goodness! I had a great time with Jason for two days in Barcelona, then I went to London for two days where I stayed with one of my new aussie friends and his housemates. I got the 3rd-degree again going through London customs, they really really do not want Americans travelers who seem like they might not be the kind to work there. Each time I've passed, I give a different answer to the questions (what nationality are your friends you're staying with?) and each time it seems to be wrong. They evidentally can't be aussie, english, or basically exist. The correct answer is probably, "I have no friends, I'm staying in a hostel, here is my return ticket, and I have 5 million dollars to spend in your country". But alas, that was not true, but despite my poor answers, they let me in.

It was nifty to experience the foreigners-living-London crowd which included canadians, aussies, and south africans (oh my!). My backpackerness came out when I was in absolute awe to be in a spacious house and have a whole couch to myself. I had an awesome night out with them at a nifty quaint bar, which is rare since I'm not much of a night person. Good times!

Between being in London and getting to Dublin, I had a couple frustrating days where I had to be going all around town on public transportation with a huge backpack, where everything was breaking down, it was raining on me, and it was one of those experiences that could really burn you out of traveling, but I got through it. It was a 5 hour debacle getting to Dublin and when I finally arrived, I saw 5 people in the non-EU passport customs line, so I thought my luck was changing finally and I'd be out in no time. Unfortunately, all those 6 people were coming from Mauritus to study in Dublin and had a huge load of paper work so it took at least 10 minutes per person with only two agents, so it took me 45 flipping minutes to get through. But when I saw my irish friend Neil at the airport, everything turned roses. I was absolutely floored by the lap of luxury I got to experience--cable, internet, food, my own bedroom, I could hardly believe it! I was really excited to be in a spacious house in London, here he has a home that would normally have had 6 or more occupants in London, I mean, hell, people in London would turn a closet into a bedroom.

In any case, we've had a splendid time so far, and today I got to play golf! We did the pitch and putt, which is basically a smaller golf course and I ended up having a knack for long drives. My putting was pretty poor, but it felt really great to be able to wack that ball so far. I felt so classy on that golf course in Ireland with all these old men around, it was like being in an english novel (but in Ireland). I've been around so many backpackers where I go, it's strange to realize that I'm the only foreigner around these parts. He's outside of Dublin so there's really not many others, so he said it was funny when I asked for "tomato" on my sandwhich in a deli instead of "to-mah-to", and about 5 people stopped and turned their heads at me. I'm also being influenced by Neil's habbits and getting into a 3 cups-of-tea-a-day habbit. The irish and english love their tea!