The Art of Wandering Around Europe: High-Tech Style

It's all I've pretty much been up to.

Between my last post in Sheffield and now, I've spent time in London, Brussels, Stuttgart, and now Vienna.  Needless to say the past few days of incessant travel has been a bit stressful and is only a sign of what's to come later on with even more travel.  But then again, as I get used to it, I think I may end up enjoying the nomadic lifestyle in the end.

First up was the train between London and Brussels.  Most Europeans wouldn't see anything special about it, but going through the Chunnel was a huge thing for me.  The English Channel Tunnel is regarded as one of the greatest engineering feats ever accomplished.  Thus, it would almost be a right of passage for me to travel through it.  Only problem; no matter how close of attention you pay to it, you'll never notice you went through it until you come out the other side and see the beautiful farmland of Northern France.  This was exactly my case.  But then again, perhaps that's another one of the tunnel's most amazing feats.  It takes you deep underneath an already-deep channel of water without you ever noticing how far into the Earth's crust you've just gone.

This brings me to my second point: high speed rail is definitely one of the coolest forms of transportation ever.  While on the train between Stuttgart and Vienna, the train I was on (the Railjet) was actually just like a jet.  A screen displayed where in Europe we were at the time and what speed we were moving at (average of about 185 KPH or 114 MPH).  The Eurostar train from London to Brussels was even faster, hitting speeds as high as 186 MPH.  The best part is that this speed is barely noticeable unless you're constantly checking your watch (in which case, you'll realize you're crossing Europe in little to no time at all).  It's a shame we haven't gotten this in the States.

Erin Go Bragh!

EDIT: Pictures are now up. I took around 430 pictures so no part of the trip goes undocumented (well, almost no part goes undocumented).

http://picasaweb.google.com/jbird60/Ireland2010?feat=directlink

It's 1:09 PM on Thursday, March 25th, and I just returned to Sheffield from an amazing week in Ireland.

A brief synopsis of what we did there:

1.) Started on Friday morning with the 3-day Paddywagon Tour of Southern Ireland. Started in Dublin, spent nights in Galway and Killarney. Got to see many landmarks along the way, including the Monastery at Clonmacnoise, a few castles, the Cliffs of Moher, and Blarney Castle (yes, I kissed the Blarney Stone and have proof of it).

2.) Visited the Guinness Storehouse and the Jameson Distillery in Dublin. Learned how to pour a perfect pint of Guinness from a tap. Also compared scotch, irish whiskey, and bourbon to determine the best of the three.

3.) Northern Ireland: arrived in Belfast, took a tour around Belfast to see how the city has been affected by the racial tensions in the country. Got to write a short message on one of the peace walls running through the city, dividing the Catholic and Protestant sides. Also took a 1-day Paddywagon Tour to Derry and back.

As usual, those on Facebook should have access to the picture log of this trip. I'll be uploading them to Picasa soon as well and will edit this post with a link to it.

A Week lived out of a knapsack

The time's come for some Easter Break travel. As I write this, I'm only 2 hours away from beginning my 1 hour walk to the train station. Now one would think that such a journey would call for a cab or a bus, but there are a few factors that stand in the way of this:

1.) Despite having lived here for around 6 weeks, I still have no knowledge of the bus routes around here
2.) Due to my genius planning, I now have only enough British currency to pay for one cab ride which I need to get to the airport from the Horsforth train station

And either way, the weather isn't too bad, so perhaps it is a good day for a walk.

Anyway, first up is the Paddywagon Tour taking place over the weekend, going to Killarney from Dublin and back. After this, our group will be heading up to Galway for a day or two, then finally up to Belfast. After this, I'll be splitting off from the group, returning to Sheffield for a night to recoup, and then it's on to the 2nd portion of my journey: a week in Germany, Austria, and Italy by myself (in terms of travel... don't worry, I'll find other people to hang out with).

Not sure if I'll be able to update the blog very often or with very much detail if I can get internet access, but I will be sure to document my travels as best I can.

Shorts weather and a failed mission

First off, I apologize for not having posted in a while. To be honest, not a whole lot has been going on here. However, with Easter Break rapidly approaching, that will most certainly change.

Anyway, a few days ago, my friend Sam and I got a real hankering for some good ole' fashioned ice cream. We'd looked around various shops in our area of Sheffield but hadn't found anything particularly amazing. This led us to an internet search which in turn gave us the address of a quaint dairy farm about 9 miles outside the city. Now as terrific as this would have seemed, getting there proved to be very expensive. Thus, we settled for what we thought was second best: an ice cream parlor that was apparently a 40 minute walk away at the Northeastern side of the city.

Thankfully, the weather today was the best it's ever been here. Temperatures were in the high 40's/low 50's, thus necessitating my use of shorts (finally!). As we trekked up and down Sheffield's hills (we may have seen up to 3 of the 7), we were treated to some wonderful scenery thanks to the presence of the sun and the lack of clouds. At the top of each hill, we had amazing views of the surrounding area and were able to spot many of the landmarks we had only seen up close.

Unfortunately, upon reaching the location given online, we were treated to a bit of a shock; we were basically in the "bad" part of town, far away from anything familiar. And the address of the ice cream parlor led us to a random house. Needless to say, we were rather disappointed. This was only added to when we finally got back into town and went to a coffee shop that served the ice cream typically made at the aforementioned dairy farm. Their version of a chocolate milkshake ended up being a glass of chocolate milk with not enough chocolate.

So lessons learned from today:

1.) Don't go to the northeast side of the city
2.) Milkshakes in England are pretty crappy
3.) Sheffield is a really beautiful city once you get to see it in the light. Thankfully, I brought my camera for this excursion. Go to http://picasaweb.google.com/jbird60/OperationIceCreamFailed?feat=directlink to see pictures.

Just a taste of the continent, nothing more

Easter Break is quickly approaching. 3 weeks of travel and fun all around Europe.

Now 3 weeks is an awful long time for spring break, but even that isn't enough for what I want to see on this spectacular continent. But, being frugal with both time and money, I've finally narrowed down the locations that I'll be going to:

Week 1: Ireland (Dublin, Galway, Killarney), Northern Ireland (Belfast), Scotland
Week 2: Brussels, Prague, Vienna, Salzburg
Week 3: Barcelona, other parts of Spain and maybe Portugal, finishing off in Munich and Stuttgart

Now if I had things my way, a tour of Italy and Greece would be on my list, especially considering my interest in Roman history. Only reason they were cut out was because no one else wanted to go to Greece and I've already been to Italy (though my memory of it is rather vague).

Thankfully, other locations closer to Sheffield will become weekend trips after Easter Break is over. This includes various places in the UK, Paris, Amsterdam, and perhaps Bruges. And we can't forget a return to mighty London.

Anyway, hopefully someday soon (fingers crossed for the summer after graduation), I'll be able to return here with some awesome friends and get to every other place I wanted to go.

Danielle, let's plan this thing out.

Mind The Gap

UPDATE: Pictures from my first London trip are up:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jbird60/UOfIWeekendInLondon#

Many more of London will come up when I go back there.

-----------------------------------

If I could describe London in a simple phrase, it would be this: The Clash.

And I'm not necessarily referring to the band. London may be one of the most internationally oriented cities ever. Bits of every culture from around the world are evident in it's 8 million citizens and various boroughs. Add to that the mixture of buildings and architecture from medieval times to just about 10 years ago and you have a city that makes no sense, but at the same time makes perfect sense.

Anyway, to recap my weekend there with the other UK-based U of I students:

Day 1 (Friday) - Took the train from Sheffield to London. Arrived at King's Cross/St. Pancras International Train Station. Truly a magnificent building, the station resembles a massive castle. From there, we (my friends Mike and Paul) walked about 30 minutes to our hotel located in Barbican, an area in the northeast part of the city. Once all the U of I kids showed up, checked into our rooms, and then went out for dinner to a rather nice Mediterranean place located in Covent Gardens. Now to get there, we took what may be the most famous subway system not in the United States: The London Underground. Now I've ridden on the El, the NY subway, and the Washington D.C. subway system. And still, London's is by far the most fun and easiest to use. It might be one of the most idiot-proof public transit systems ever.

Anyway, had a nice dinner, then went to see a show called Havana Rakatan, a Cuban dance show at the Peacock Theatre. After the show, we students were left to ourselves. Now of course because March 5th was Unofficial St. Patrick's day at U of I, we had to celebrate ourselves. Thus, the necessary imbibing occurred, after which we all decided to go to Fabric, one of the most renowned nightclubs in the world. All I can say about the club is this: if you are a fan of awesome dance music and otherwise really damn good electronic music of almost any genre, go there. But don't go with more than three other people. The club has 5 levels (!!!) and losing people with all the bouncers everywhere becomes all too easy.

Day 2 (Saturday): The day started with a bus tour of the city (needless to say, even a 10:30 AM start was a bit rough for those who had massive hangovers from the night before). We drove by almost every major landmark in the city, stopping at a few to take pictures. Afterwards, my friend Mike and I wandered around the city in search of the fabled Texas Embassy Grill. After a good 40 minute trek, we finally found the place and enjoyed some wonderful Tex-Mex cuisine. We finished the night with a pub quiz and dinner at the Olde Cock Tavern.

Day 3 (Sunday): The Tower of London. The fortress on the river Thames that houses the Crown Jewels. Basically, we stared at 778929839823 billion dollars worth of diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and gold. Then, after a few pictures on Tower Bridge (the one everyone thinks is London Bridge), took the train back home to Sheffield.

After many miles of walking and a few hundred miles on trains, I'm tired and I've got lots of work to do.

But overall, an awesome weekend in London. A link to the pictures to follow soon.