The last bits

Excuse the previous lackluster update, we've both been quite tired and didn't put much effort into it.

Amsterdam was amazing.  Definitely one of our favorite cities.  It's quite small, but so, so beautiful.  Somehow it was warm-ish and sunny when we were there, which according to a friend that lives there, was quite rare!  We did A LOT of walking, ate delicious thai food, and also met up with one of the first people we met in Ireland! Our paths have crossed about three times since we left Kilkenny, it's been really nice hanging out with a familiar face.
Our overnight bus was.. an uncomfortable overnight bus, as one would expect.  We had to get off twice, once to go through customs, and again to board the ferry.  After we arrived in London, we boarded the bus once again and drove for another hour or so to get to the bus station.  From there we dropped our bags off at the hostel, freshened up, enjoyed a delicious English breakfast, then met up with our good friend Heather from high school and her wife, Charlie!  We went to the Natural History museum, got bangers n' mash (also delicious), and found books for our journey at the book store.  It was really great to catch up with them; it was like no time had passed.
The next morning we met Koby's Aunt Terri and Uncle Jeff at the airport and caught a ride back with them to their house in Wales.  We all pitched in and cooked dinner together that night; it was really great being surrounded by family again.  Yesterday, we went to the grocery store for provisions for today's journey, Koby's aunt made a fantastic chicken stew, and we all watched a couple movies together by the fire.  This morning, Koby's uncle dropped us off at the train station, and we took two two-and-a-half hour train rides (with an hour layover in between) and we are currently waiting for 1 AM, which is the earliest we can board our ferry to Dublin that arrives at 5:50 AM, where we will sleep in their airport until 8AM, go through check out, then be on our way to New York, then finally, CALIFORNIA!  In total, we had/have about 48 hours of traveling.  Not exactly how we would like to spend the last day of our journey, but we're both REALLY looking forward to In n Out, so it's kind of okay.

The Baltics and Germany!

It's been awhile! So, we last updated from Lithuania.  Since then we have been to Riga, Latvia, Tallinn, Estonia, flew to Berlin, Germany, and now we are visiting a friend in Cologne, Germany!

Riga, Latvia- The Old Town was beautiful! We spent most of our time walking around there and playing in the leaves that had changed color and fallen off the trees near the river.  I can't explain how wonderful it is to experience a real fall season!  Our hostel wasn't the best, it was difficult to socialize and in the kitchen there was only a hot plate that you COULD NOT BOIL WATER ON which made cooking very difficult.  Overall, Riga was not our favorite.

Tallinn, Estonia- BEAUTIFUL.  Oh my.  Very beautiful old town and just a generally enjoyable place to walk around.  We stayed at an awesome hostel and met some really great people!  We went on a pub crawl, had a little football party where we streamed the Niners game on a projector and watched it with fellow fans, and watched cruise ships come in from the abandoned building overlooking the Baltic Sea.

Berlin, Germany- We couch surfed for the second time! We stayed with a 21 year old  and her parents in their really nice/well decorated flat in West Berlin.  We did the four hour walking tour which was fantastic!  We also went out with our couch surfing host and her friend to a couple bars one night which was great fun.  Our last night there we had to find a hostel because our host originally told us we were only able to stay for two nights (turns out we could have stayed al three, but oh well).  Our hostel was in a nice area and we met a few people, plus there was a 2 for 1 happy hour at the hostel bar which you really can't beat!

Cologne, Germany- We took an eight hour bus ride from Berlin to Cologne. My friend, Emily,then picked us up and we stayed with her for the weekend in one of the nicest houses!  It really was like staying in a hotel. Anyhow, during the day we went to a flea market, got crepes, did a little shopping, climbed to the top of the tallest gothic cathedral  in all of Europe (quite scary), did a little more shopping, rested a bit, then we met all of Emily and her boyfriend's really awesome friends and then at like 1 AM or something we went to a club and stayed there until 5 AM or so! Everyone parties a lot later here and it's definitely hard to get used to, but we had a great time!

We are currently in a van on our way to Amsterdam and using ride share for the first time and the driver is playing a bunch of American hip hop/rap, it's funny.

So after Amsterdam, we take an overnight bus to London where we will be for a day, then we meet up with Koby's aunt the following afternoon and get a ride to Wales where we will visit for a couple days, then we have a day of travel (bus, train, ferry), and we'll arrive in Dublin at 5 AM, and fly home at 10 AM!  Our trip is quickly coming to an end and it's bittersweet.

Labas!

Greetings from Vilnius, Lithuania! So we took an overnight bus to get here from Warsaw that had little TVs on the back of each seat and we were able to watch free movies.  We had just treated ourselves to a meal beforehand (it had been about a week and a half since we had more than a quick sandwich or kebab), so on the bus we watched the same movie at the same time, so we basically had a little date night; what a treat!

Vilnius is BEAUTIFUL! It's so clean and has such a old, small town feel.  We tried some traditional Lithuanian food.  Lithuanian beans with crackling, their version of potatoes gratin, and also zeppelins, which are potatoes with meat inside.  It was all very delicious and Koby is extremely happy with all the potatoes.  I, on the other hand, have been trying to stock up on the fruits and veggies because this European diet is killing me!  I mean, I love it, don't get me wrong, but it's not what my body is used to.

Tomorrow we head to Riga, Latvia!

P.S. Krakow was krakin.  But really, another favorite city.  Eastern Europe, I love you; I wish we had more time with you.

Oktoberfest and more

After we left Budapest, we took a bus back to Vienna for a few hours, then took an overnight train to Munich on Friday.  We camped for Oktoberfest, using Topdeck Travel, which I wouldn't suggest to anyone.  It's not that it was terrible, and we were able to book it fairly last minute, but they made it sound better than it was, and the campsite was freezing.  That aside, Oktoberfest was AWESOME! Really, really awesome.  So the first day we got there at about 8:30AM, got in line for a tent, got inside and got a table by about 9:30.  We ended up at a table with some awesome Italians and we're drunk by about 10:15.  German beer is strong, easy to drink, and there is A LOT of it.  At noon a band started playing, and then it turned into a shit show.  But in the best possible way.  More and more people joined out table, we sang songs(Ein Prosit), ate half chickens and pretzels.  Every couple minutes someone would stand on their table, everyone would cheer them on, and they would attempt to chug the rest of the beer.  Most were successful, some weren't, and those that weren't were incessantly boo'd and I also heard they were supposed to dump the rest of the beer on their head, but unfortunately we didn't see that.  We somehow made it out of the tent at about 1 PM totally plastered and made it back to our campsite around 2 PM, passed out until about 7 PM, woke up with a gnarly hangover, nursed that, and went back to bed a couple hours later.  Next morning, we head to the campgrounds at 8AM again.  We decided to actually enjoy the festival that day, who knew that Oktoberfest had rides and games and wasn't just beer? No us.  So we walked around for a bit, went into a tent for a stein, walked around a bit more, got bratwursts, rode the swings(yes in that order, no it wasn't a good idea), then we went to multiple tents looking for a seat and we finally found a table and we sat with a bunch of Germans, which was really cool! Koby immediately started drinking, I needed some time.  We talked and sang more songs, then we both started drinking more and singing German drinking songs with appropriate dance moves and had a fantastic time.  You really feel like family at Oktoberfest.  It's serious drinking business, even for serious beer drinkers, Oktoberfest is no joke, but now having been I think everyone should go.  It's truly a once in a lifetime experience and definitely one of the best we've had on our trip! "Pacing yourself" is really difficult, so just get drunk and wake up with mysterious bratwurst wrappers in your pockets like we did!

Our lovely, lovely campsite apparently had the flu virus going around, and who gets it? Me. Inevitably, Koby got it as well.  That made our five hour bus ride to Prague really, really great.  Once we were in Prague, we both needed to do nothing.  So we did exactly that. Our second day in Prague, we walked around the city for a few hours, made some really basic soup, went for a walk at night, and went to bed.  It definitely sucked that we couldn't explore Prague more.  It's SUCH a beautiful city with a magical feel, I'm glad we visited, but I would love to go back.  On Wednesday, we took a train and a bus to Krakow, Poland, which is where we are now!  We're staying at the best hostel, free breakfast, free dinner, free drinks, free laundry, and more.

Yesterday we did Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps.  It was a lot.  It's hard to explain how you feel when you're there, it's like a combination of sad, depressed, shock, and disgust.  But visiting the camp was one of the main reasons I wanted to take this trip, and I'm really glad we went and I think it's an essential trip for everyone else as well.
On another note, as I recovered from the flu, I managed to get a cold.  Being sick while traveling sucks, but I'm still so happy to be here.  Today we're going to do a free walking tour through the Jewish quarter, and also explore the city.  Then tomorrow evening we travel to Warsaw and catch a connecting bus to Vilnius, Lithuania!  Then the other two Baltic states, Berlin, Cologne, Amsterdam, Scotland(hopefully), Wales, then home! I think the rest of our time here is going to go quickly, which makes me quite sad, but it'll be so great to see everyone and not have to carry out backpacks anymore!

A few last words:
I wish I packed for winter, I'm SO cold.
Also, we will figure out how to upload all our photos to a website for everyone to view! Sorry I know we should be better about that, but there are so many pictures and we're usually exhausted at night and don't want to bother with it.
Also, so.many.Australians. I'm getting really sick of the 'c***' word being used so liberally.

Recently

Alrighty, we've been quite busy since our last update! After we left Florence, which was so fantastic, we went to Venice for about 36 hours, and that was plenty.  Venice was beautiful and the sunsets were breathtaking, but it was expensive and so touristic.  We took an overnight train to Vienna, which wasn't AS terrible as I was expecting, it definitely wasn't the best night's sleep I've ever had.  The overnight saved us time and money ( and had a clean bathroom), so I can't complain.

Vienna was grand.  The German language was.. difficult to say the least, but thankfully a lot of people speak English.  Our hostel had a bar, with pints for 1 euro during happy hour, so I took advantage of that, had an awesome night with
Koby, some Australians, and some annoying people from the East Coast, but I definitely paid for it the next morning.  Being hungover in a hostel really sucks, although our was quite clean so that was a plus.  When I was able to function again, at about 3 PM, we decided to try goulash.  An employee gave us directions to a good goulash place in city centre so we began our trek there.  Let me just say, our map was garbage, and the street signs are confusing, so it took us about to hour and a half to find this place, whilst I was still in my hangover daze.  We found the flea market that this restaurant was located in, but it was a Saturday, so the businesses and vendors were boomin'.  The market was great, lots of fresh fruits, veggies, street foods, goods, etc.  We finally found our restaurant after asking for directions, sat down, ordered goulash and dumplings, beer for Koby, big ol' glass of water for me, and enjoyed our delicious stew-like meal!  We walked around for a bit after that, then made our way back to the hostel because I still felt like poop.
The next morning, we were determined to make up for the previous, slightly uneventful day, we got an early start to do the walking tour that our hostel puts on for free.  The Wombats Hostel has three different locations in Vienna, and the walking tour left from the hostel closest to the market we were at the day before.  So we made our way there, but apparently, the hostel does the walking tour every day EXCEPT for Sundays, which our hostel location neglected to tell us.  So we ask what to do/see in Vienna, and head that way.  We went to an area called the Museum Quartier, an area with a few museums surrounding it and places to hang out in the middle.  Koby and I were hanging out in the middle and this guy approached Koby and asked if he could take a picture of his beard for his school project.  Of course Koby said yes and was on cloud nine the rest of the day.  The photographer also told us that there was a free, acoustic Portugal. The Man show in the same spot in a few hours! Very cool, neither of us are huge fans, but 'acoustic' and 'free' are two of my favorite things so obviously we were going to go.  We had some time to kill, so we decided to go for traditional Viennese coffee and apple strudels at Cafe Central, a well known cafe in Vienna.  Holy macrol, they were delicious! We enjoyed the surrounding areas for a little bit before heading back to Museum Quartier for the show.   It ended up being really fantastic and they even handed out free beer!  We met a nice Viennese girl who translated some German things for us and also sent us to a good place to get Wiener schnitzel. I ended up getting chicken schnitzel, because veal makes me sad, but it was really delicious anyway!
We walked around Vienna a bit more and made our way back to the hostel to make dinner and get our stuffed packed and ready to leave the next morning.  We woke up early, had breakfast, then made our way across town to catch our bus to Budapest.  We arrived in Budapest 3-4 hours later, and checked into our hostel.  We walked around the city, grabbed dinner, and talked to others staying in our hostel.  One of our roommates lives in the Sunset District of San Francisco!  Small world.  It was nice to meet an American because we really haven't met too many since Ireland, but we've met a hell of a lot of Australians.
This morning we woke up early, had breakfast at the hostel, and made our way towards the free walking tour.  The walking tour was fantastic!  Our guide was hilarious and we saw a lot of the city.  We're staying on the Pest side, which is the more industrial side apparently, but we also walked to the Buda side, which is apparently where all the "lucky bastards" live.  It is more of a "posh" country side.  After the tour, the guide showed us a cafeteria type place that was really inexpensive.  I got a mushroom stew with dumplings, and Koby got the veal stew with dumplings, both were delicious!  We then stopped by a pastry place to try some Hungarian desserts, which were also delicious.
Now we are in a laundry mat doing our laundry because the one in our hostel is out of order.  We plan to head back, make some dinner, then head to one of the ruin bars, which are run-down communist buildings that were turned into bars!  Should we a fun night.
A few other things that don't really fit in anywhere else.  Hungarian is in the top five hardest languages to learn, so I don't feel as dumb for not being able to learn any phrases, but that doesn't make it any easier to communicate!  Thankfully a lot of people speak English here as well.  The Hungarian currency is weird and SO confusing.  The denominations are huge, like there are 10,000 bills.  We looked up some conversions to help with our confusion a bit, but most the time we're still totally lost anyway.  USD is on the left, Hungarian Forint(HUF) is on the right:
1- 221
5- 1106
10- 2213
15- 3318
20- 4427
25- 5530
30- 6636
40- 8848
50- 11069
100- 22121

Budapest and Vienna are quite cheap though=].
Also, it seems as though meat and cheese plates are normal for breakfast, at least in Vienna and Budapest.  Like, people make sandwiches out of them for breakfast.  I realllly miss scrambled eggs, and bacon.  Oh, bacon.
It's quite common to charge for public restrooms.  Wtf, Europe?
One of the reasons I am most excited to leave Europe and to get away from all the cigarette smoke.  Really, it's disgusting and it's everywhere.  I feel like I've already lost five years of my life in like five weeks.
Anyhow, we leave here Thursday afternoon, return to Vienna for a couple hours, then take an overnight train to Munich for OKTOBERFEST!  We're very, very excited.  We'll be celebrating our anniversary there, which isn't the most romantic, but hell, it's Oktoberfest, c'mon.

We only have about thirty-three days left =[, time is flyin'.

^^ The above was written last night in my notes while we were doing laundry, but I forgot to post it.
We went to three different 'ruin bars' last night, which are old run-down buildings, mostly old communist buildings, that are turned into bars! Some are multiple floors, have multiple bars, rooms, clubs, retro furniture and decorations.  They're really awesome! So we went to one bar before to get a drink and also took a shot of palinkas, a Hungarian drink that is made from local fruits and is high in alcohol... it tasted like tequila, weird.  Then we went to the ruin bars and had a good time, got gyros, and stumbled home.  Budapest is awesome and crazy; some of the bars don't close until 6AM!
Anyhow, we just had breakfast and now we're going to head to one of Budapest's notorious hot baths!

Hey Updater

Ciao de Firenze!
Its been a while since we've updated and its because we were volunteering in Southern Italy outside of a town called Martina Franca. We used a website called Helpx to contact a host and arrange a time, date and amount of time you would be available to come and help them with simple, tedious, fun or difficult tasks around their property. It could range from anything between washing dishes, building green-house to getting the eggs from the chicken coop. Unfortunately for us, our host did not elaborate on what exactly our stay would be like. Normally a host has a house with a spare room for you with at least somewhat comfortable accommodation. Our host however, had a Trullo, which isn't that bad, but it was more like a partial Trullo with one room that was a kitchen and a partial room that had the sink and fridge. It was cute, kind of, but besides that, he had two trailers, one he slept in and one we slept in. It was kind of dirty and there were spiders everywhere. Needless to say, Kelli had a hard time, I wasn't necessarily happy either but we dealt with it. Again, that is all doable, its like camping, its fun, its an experience that we can tell our friends, family and future kids about. But here's the kicker, he didn't have any running water, or a source of water on his property, he had buckets, bathtubs, big glass containers and water jugs that he had a man come fill up every so often (with the exception of our drinking water, which we went and filled up ourselves). So again, this seems manageable, until its time to shower.. If we wanted hot water we had to boil it on the stove then run it over to his make shift 'bathroom' to ensure a comfortable shower experience. The other part of this 'bathroom' had a toilet, but it was literally only a toilet. If we had to do anything other then pee we had to take a jug of water to the toilet to "flush it down." Again, this was quite the experience. So much different than what we are normally used to, it was humbling, quite humbling, to say the least. I'm glad we did it, but I wish we would have had a heads up about what we would have been getting ourselves into.

As Koby said previously, we managed.  I might have cried to myself the first morning we were there because it was the opposite of what we both envisioned..  For example, we thought Gazy was a girl who lived in a nice house on some property that she needed help maintaining, and I also hoped she had an espresso machine so she could teach me the Italian secret to making those delicious cappuccinos. But nope, Gazy was a boy and we were way off on all of our other predictions as well.  I'm glad we volunteered and I'm glad we're done.  I would do it again if the circumstances were different, I'm just not a totally "roughin'" it type of girl.  I like having running water and being able to shave my legs.
Anyway, now we're in Florence and everything is fantastic. We tried AirBnB for the first time, it great! Our 'host' is really nice.  We've just been exploring and going to lots of the places that our friends have suggested.  We've both been quite tired though, I think our journey is finally catching up with us. We went to Pisa a couple days ago.  The tower was great! But Pisa itself is quite boring and kind of smells like poop.
After Florence, I think we're going to Venice.  We booked our Oktoberfest accommodations!  Which is camping for 4 days and 3 nights, they provide the tents, air mattresses, and a hot breakfast, so it should be fantastic! Our camping dates are September 27th-30th, so we have to figure out what we want to do with our time until then; I would like to go to Vienna and Budapest, but we have to see if we can afford it.  It may sound ridiculous, but I feel as though we haven't done much for being here for 5 weeks because we've only been to two countries, which is why I want to go to Vienna and Budapest before Oktoberfest.  Yesterday, we planned out the rest of our journey, because we'll only have 27 days left after Oktoberfest and we have a whole lot to see.  We'll be going to Poland, the Baltics, back to Germany, Amsterdam, Scotland(hopefully), London(maybe), Wales, then back to Dublin.  So it's a lot to cram in, but I really want to enjoy as many countries as possible while we're here!
Sorry my portion of the post is a little scattered, I've had about 4 shots of espresso today!

Ciao

Ciao da Roma!  We are currently updating from our hotel which is a gorgeous 20 minute walk from the Fontana di Trevi and Colosseo! Today we are touring the Vatican. Yesterday we started to walk to the fountain, and we ran into an English couple that was lost but also heading towards the fountain, so we all walked together and hung out for the rest of the day.  After enjoying the fountain, we got gelato (so freaking good), then we walked by the Piazza Mignanelli and saw the Spanish Steps! Then we began to wonder to this giant park.  On our way there, however, one of those annoying, persistent f***ers that tries to rip off tourists tried to hand me red roses, while yelling "you're so beautiful, you should have these","you are so beautiful" and repeated himself about 10 times. We continuously said "no", "no thank you" and so on.  Finally he backed off as we continued walking up the steps.  Then he popped up a minute later, handed me the damned roses and said, "you're so beautiful, have these." By that point, I assumed they were free.  Side note: We've been to Paris, I've encountered these little a**holes before, I knew to avoid them because they target/rip off tourists and make to feel like an idiot for falling for their tricky ways.  Back to the story.  So by this point, I had the roses and we continued to walk the steps, not being bothered by anyone.  I thought I had won, not been scammed, and scored some free roses in the mean time, what a fabulous way to start our Italian adventures, right?  WRONG. Little a**hole comes out of nowhere when we reach the top of the steps and says, "this place is so beautiful, let me take a picture", "picture, picture", "let me get a picture of the beautiful couple".  We were definitely apprehensive about handing this little a**hole our camera, we thought, "okay, well free roses probably equals a stolen camera."  So after much debate, all while being harassed by this annoying a**hole, we hand over our camera and he hands us the bouquet of roses and tells us to hold those for the picture too.  He takes a bunch of pictures, and we thought, "okay cool, cute couple pictures, awesome."  After, he hands us the camera and we hand him the roses and he, then, OF COURSE asks for money.  How could we be so stupid?! With much hesitation, Koby tries to hand him the change in his pocket and he says, "no, not enough". EXCUSE 

ME YOU LITTLE SH*THEAD?! So Koby, now this was not very smart on his part, pulls out his

wallet to look for a small bill, but the smallest bills here are 5 because the small coins are 1 and 2 euro.  So this guy tries to grab the 10, and Koby is like, "no, here's the 5", and they have a small argument and guy eventually accepts the 5 and we walk off with the damned roses feeling like complete idiots that fell for the typical tourist trap.  I began to resent the roses and eventually left them on a bench. It was frustrating, but definitely a good laugh and now a hilarious story, especially after you look at the brilliant photos the man took of us.  

After the scam, we walked with our new friends to this giant park, then went to a restaurant for pizza and drinks.  After that, we both went to our separate hotels to chill out for a minute because it is quite hot and quite humid here, and after all that walking, we needed a break.  Our hotel charges 5 euro a day for air conditioner, so we're trying to avoid that. We then met up again around 9 at the fountain and shared a bottle of wine, it was a little more peaceful, but I think we'll venture back there at about midnight to really enjoy the fountain, since it's such a tourist attraction.

All in all, we had such a fabulous first day in Roma.  All of the buildings, and even the alley ways, are so so beautiful!

Anyhow, we're off to our tour, ciao!

*Excuse the language, those words are just so fitting.

^^ the aforementioned photo..

(We haven't uploaded our pictures yet) 

It's been awhile..

Greetings! We are now in Belfast, Ireland, which has quickly become our favorite stop so far, along with Galway. The city is awesome and so much more diverse than anywhere else we've been so far, it seems that self expression is a lot more accepted and pushed for. Mohawks, tattoos, colored hair, etc etc. Since our last post we have met more friends and crossed Ireland more than once. West to East and South to North. We have spent time in Kilkenny which is a smaller more medieval town that had a lot to do and a thriving night life. After Kilkenny we hitchhiked to Tralee, where we couchsurfed for a couple  nights with an amazingly nice woman named Sona. Tralee was small and didn't have much to do, so we did a bus tour around the Ring Of Kerry, a beautiful beautiful beautiful trip and we also made our way to a tiny town called Dingle, right on the Dingle peninsula for the day. Our couchsurfing host offered us a ride up to Belfast, a 5 hour ride, so naturally, we took it, which brings us to now, sitting in a coffee shop, drinking "black coffee" as they call it, which is just an americano..  Also currently trying to figure out accommodations for Oktoberfest, which is quite pricey!

So much in so little time

Greetings from Galway! We just finished cooking dinner, a vegetable and turkey breast filet stir fry, at our new hostel, Wood Quay.  Since our last post we stayed in the Lough Rynn Castle in Mohill, which was my graduation gift from Koby.  It was absolutely beautiful! We had "proper tea", strolled through their Walled Gardens, and roamed around the castle property quite a bit.  We also took advantage of the private bathroom to do a little laundry. Although, we didn't take into account that there isn't really a breeze here, nor is there much sun, so our clothes weren't even dry the day after we washed them, sooo we had to spend a few hours drying them individually with the hair dryer provided, which was quite comical! Staying in a castle was definitely one for the books.

<3
Kelli


I don't really have much to say, except that I am having a fantastic time! I really love Ireland, it's ridiculously beautiful and green, which is a lot different then everything I'm really used to. I also did not realize that Ireland is tiny, well not tiny, but small. Its super easy to get from one side to the other, nor does it take long. Kelli and I have spent time in Dublin at a busy hostel, Carrick-on-Shannon at a small, more homey hostel, Mohill in a huge Castle and now we are in Galway at a smaller hostel, which is also supposed to be "the place to go." We'll see how that holds up!

Here are some pictures to give you an idea.

 

The lake behind Lough Rynn Castle

The view from out River Boat trip in Carrick-on-Shannon!

Our travels so far

Lough Rynn Castle from the front

and behind

Drying my boxers with a hair dryer.. :(

Carrick-on-Shannon

Hello! Currently posting from Cafe Lounge in Carrick-on-Shannon.  Now we're in the countryside and it is beyond gorgeous.  It's what you imagine, but better.  The people are even more friendly and willing to help! The owner of our hostel, B-side Hostel, is so accommodating and is even driving us to our next destination tomorrow morning, which is Lough Rynn Castle in Mohill, where we'll be for about three days.  It's Carrick's 400th anniversary, so there is a lot of celebration going on! It's also a popular time for "stags" and "hens" parties, which are bachelor and bachelorette parties, except everyone here dresses up and it's pretty entertaining!
We've been cooking most of our meals lately(nothing fancy), at least one a day, which makes a HUGE difference.  We made dinner last night and breakfast this morning for less than 10 euro, which normally would've cost about 40-50 euro.  Which also means we have more money for alcohol and adventures=].
I really, really love Ireland, like maybe live here someday, love it.

Also, we've had so much support from both of our parents, siblings, extended family, and friends which made the biggest difference and really made this trip possible.  Although, most of the people we told have responded with, "That's so awesome, I'm so jealous" or something along those lines.  If Koby & I, two college students, working part/full time, living in one of the most expensive cities can make this work, what's stopping everyone else with similar circumstances?  If where you are now isn't where you want to be in the next couple years, what's stopping you?!  This is all out of love, I really just want everyone to be able to experience the fantastic adventure that we are.  We decided that we wanted to do it, bought our tickets at the end of April, and had no choice but to figure the rest of it out.  This is already so much more rewarding that whatever new shirt or pair of shoes I could have ever, ever purchased.  Happy (future) travels!

Much, much love,
Kelli

Day Two

Currently posting from Starbucks( :| ) because our hostel wifi is down.  Today we did a Guinness tour and became certified Guinness pourers!  They had a sky bar with a view of Dublin, so amazing! We also got coffee and walked around Stephen's Green, a beautiful park in central-ish Dublin.

Things we've noticed:

Guys wear sweatpants and pop their collars A LOT

Girls put on their make up at the cake store (Koby made a funny today..)

Apparently tights are pants here.. EXCEPT THEY AREN'T

No one wakes up before 8 AM

No one sleeps before 3 AM

The food is mostly carbs..

EVERYONE IS FRIENDLY AND IT'S REALLY REFRESHING

We are here! It feels like its taken a year to finally get here, but after waiting months for the day to come and then one dreadful five hour flight and one okay five hour flight we made it to Ireland. However, neither of us took in to account that it would be 5:15 am when we arrived. Once we got to Dublin all we wanted to do was eat, but apparently the Irish do not wake up until 8am, so we did a bit of walking. Breakfast was great and only the first of many. After that we went back to our hostel and took a 5 hour nap on the couch in the common room because we couldnt check in until 2. Its now 2:43pm, we are rested and happy, its time to adventure.

Cheers!

First post.

Hello! So obviously this will be our travel blog! Neither one of us ever blogs, so don't expect much more than poorly written posts with long, run-on sentences accompanied by blurry photos because we aren't photographers either. But, we'll attempt to update this daily. Anyway, we'll be in Ireland in less than 96 hours! Whoa.

:D