Yes. At last. An entry.

Words. Here they are. Coming at you full speed. "Where the eff have you been!?" You may be asking impatiently, though with understandable rage, "You have been gone a WEEK and STILL no updates!" Well, I apologize dear readers but being a world traveler is more difficult than even I, an above average genius, could have predicted.

Day One

Follow me, if you will, to September 30, 2010. I have just gotten off my plane at the Dublin airport to realize that it is FRICKIN' FREEZING. The plane has landed an entire HOUR early and it is only 4:20AM. After six hours of wandering, Jacob and I realize that we have been heading NORTH instead of south…btw NO ONE has EVER heard of the Ferry Terminal. Eventually, we give up and decide that we are going to do to the airport and just buy the cheapest ticket Ryanair has available. What? You can only buy them online? Awesome. Plan C (because we are really trying desperately here): Get to France ASAP. We found a campsite in Wexford which is only 20 min north of the Rosslare Ferry Terminal. 7:30PM we are in Wexford and it is PITCH BLACK. We decide to get some dinner (Sausage, Egg, and Chips…aka 'French Fries') and make our way to the campsite. What? It's closed? We have to camp in a sketchy playground? OK! We pitch the tent and pretty much DIE because the wind is blowing so hard that it sounds like footsteps. 15 minutes later I freak out and tell Jake that there is no way on Earth that I am sleeping there and we pack up. Luckily we had passed a hotel on our way to SketchVille, Ireland, so we agree that as long as it is less than 150 Euro we would stay. Price? 80 Euro. AND she felt so bad for us that she threw in breakfast for free.

Wexford, Ireland

Day Two

Because no hotel in Europe believes in providing clocks, we slept through breakfast. Not to worry, though, because we still had PLENTY of food from our wonderful sponsors. We wandered briefly before going to the train station and purchasing our tickets for Rosslare Harbour. We realized that it would be about 6 hours before departure, but did not really care. Instead, we decided to lay out some undried clothes we had washed the night before, crack open our books, and hang out a bit. Three hours later, bored out of our skulls, we decided to wander. Although it was not at all fun lugging our bags around the town, it wasn't any worse than the day prior. We stumbled upon the "city hall" aka "ancient fucking castle" and took some pictures.

Wexford, Ireland

After about an hour of walking around, we decided to retune to the station, do some painting, play some ukulele, and essentially just relax. I have been reading Eat, Pray, Love and have been doing my best to take her advice and just RELAX. It's a lot harder than you think. She talks about how Americans are just naturally go-go-go, and how none of us really realize that relaxation is something we all deserve- it isn't something that must be earned. I am not even halfway through, and I would already recommend it to everyone. I would love for my mother to have some extra time to read it because I think it would be very meaningful for us both to be reading this together while apart. Even though I am now further away physically than I have ever been from her, I feel like we are now much closer. I know she will never be able to understand how and why I love traveling so much, just as I will never understand her passion for being a nurse, but I feel if we can understand the power of that passion then we essentially are the same. I know I have her with me every day, and if things are hard and Jake and I are having a difficult time, I look down at my arms and I remember home and my mother's love (we not only got matching tattoos right before I left, but we also made bracelets together that I wear every day).

Anyways, we finally get on the train and about 30 minutes later we are in Rosslare. We had the intentions of going to a grocery store to pack up on food for the boat, but Rosslare is essentially a harbor and NOTHING else. We waited in the lobby a few hours before finally boarding only to find that the room with our seats was locked. We had been following this young, French (I believe) man since Ireland and found that he was also going to be in this room. A French woman came up and was infuriated that we couldn't get in, so she stormed off. About an hour later she returned with a crew member who opened the door. And there we were: Jake, myself, the French woman, our French pal, and three other guys. We soon find out that one of them is from New Hampshire, and he turns out to be a douche. He is here on his trust fund "getting life experience." The other two are from Germany and have been driving throughout Europe. The German boys are super friendly and mostly played Backgammon atop their lime green camping mattresses while we played rummy.

Photos from the Ferry

The French woman approached Jake and I and spoke with us for awhile. She told us about her travels to Brazil (where she had almost been murdered FOUR times) and how she had always wanted to travel to America. She told us that she was very happy to speak with us, but wanted to know if we had ever been aware about the rule that no one with AIDS is ever allowed to enter America as a tourist (let alone immigrate). We were not aware of this. She said that it had always been her dream to visit America, and that she hoped one day she would have that ability- but that it obviously would not happen until that rule changed. She asked that we be sure to tell our friends, just to make sure others in our country were aware of this- because at least if our citizens were aware it would be okay with her. We told her that we would tell our friends, and that it had been great speaking with her before we left the room for some dinner. Dinner was gross- that's pretty much that. When we got back to the room, we set up our sleeping bags on the floor of the room and got ready to sleep. Pretty much everyone else had the same idea and we turned out the lights.