From the beginning, the first stop on my journey was London, I stayed with a friend of mine from highschool, Ann, who is currently doing her masters at Goldsmiths in London. I have been to London before, but it's quite different hitting all the main tourist stops with your stepfather and living with students in Shoreditch. London was a nice transition into travelling, it's relatively easy to navigate and get around, everyone speaks english and I have a helpful guide who's lived here for a year. Another bonus is that the majority of museums and art galleries are free so I have plenty of things to entertain myself with while Ann is being studious. I have to admit though, embarrasingly enough I must have been there not two days before we went to the Maple Leaf pub to watch game 7 of Montreal vs Pittsburgh, I guess it's hard to entirely detatch. My only complaint is that it seems to take forever to get anywhere, I realize that London is a huge city but something will look really close on a map and then take 30 min by tube. At least I didn't have to experience rush hour, Ann told me horror stories of having to wait outside the tube station for half an hour before even being allowed in, I can't imagine that would be fun in the winter.
The Next stop after London was Dublin Ireland to see my friend Matt who was doing his MBA there. The timing worked out really well as I arrived just as exams had ended and the majority of students were still around in rez. The campus and rez seemed way nicer than I ever remember Guelph being but maybe that's only because I didn't actually have to live there. The campus was located in a suburb of Dublin called Blackrock which was only a 20 min DART ride into town. I made some very important discoveries while in Ireland; I learned how to drink a Guiness properly from Matt's friend Rob who proceeded to dump beer all over his shirt. I learned that Cider comes in other flavours other than apple, Strawberry lime was my favorite. I discovered that there are karaoke cabs in Dublin and I seriously think that someone needs to bring them to Canada as that was by far the most fun cab ride I have ever been on. And finally I discovered that RAs are a little bit more relaxed in Ireland than in Canada after I saw one get completely wasted, trash his friends rez room the day before his inspection, pass out and then get drawn all over with permanent marker, and I mean ALL over.
After an eventful couple of days in Dublin I had a bit of a scare when the ash cloud suddenly reappeared and threatened my flight back to London. I was extremely lucky as Dublin airport re-opened 2 hours before my flight and I made it safely back in time to meet Adrienne and make the cruise ship. One of the most interesting parts of travelling is being able to compare your perception of a place with how it actually is. The reverse is also funny, hearing people's perceptions of Canada and Canadians. Some of the funny ones I have heard so far are; an Australian guy who didn't want to go to Canada for fear of getting attacked by bears, an American guy who asked me if we had our own currency or if we just used American money, and an Irish guy who just simply would not believe me when I told him that Canadians don't just sit around all day smoking pot and eating weed brownies. I will thoroughly try to be much better at updating this blog as my effort so far is a bit pathetic. I have posted some pictures on my Picasa site and will try and post more soon, if you click on the picture below it will link. Miss you all! |
| London and Dublin |
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