Flying home, redirected to Laguardia, and being stuck on the Amtrak {Final Day}

I had to wake up.  My flight was leaving at 8 and Amy had to go straight to work afterwards.

Well everything has to end.  Or so they say!  I was plotting my return since I landed! ho ho ho!  In any case, I said my byes to everyone who was still there and went with Amy to the airport.

“Amy, thank you and your family again for letting me stay with you while I was in Ireland!  I really appreciate it!”

“Oh it is no problem at all, Ted.  Did you have a good time?”

“Are you kidding me?  Of course I did!  I loved coming here!  Loved every minute!”

I wasn’t kidding or saying it lightly at all!  It was the best journey ever!  Well, even though its setbacks and I didn’t really have other journeys to compare it to other than Thailand..

The flight back to the US was trouble free!  It wasn’t till I landed back into chicago when the trouble began.

There was bad storm in North New Jersey, causing Newark to not let flights in.  So, there I was, stranded at Chicago’s O Hare airport.

“Ted, this is why you should have stayed and lived in Ireland…”

Oh how I would have loved to!  I am sure this is telling me I shouldn’t have ever came back!

So I waited in line for an hour to talk to the American Airlines attendant.  Argh!  I had to be at work tomorrow at 8 am!  I really should have put in another vacation day…

When I finally got to the attendant, it was either fly to La Guardia in an hour or wait till tomorrow to go home. La Guardia!  I called my friend Giovanni letting him know of the change.  Argh.  The original plan was for me to land in EWR (Newark) and him picking me up there at 6 pm.

I boarded the plane to La Guardia and it was immensely packed! Like sardines I have to add!  I was stuck at the window two fairly large guys next to me.  Hooray.

I landed in La Guardia, squished and eyes dry and red.  Must.Get.out!!

The thing now was getting home.  Giovanni suggested that I take the NJ Transit to 30th street station.  But there was a mishap near the train station, that the shuttle bus wouldn’t even go near there ….

Unless we paid him some more money.  What.The.Heck??

I stayed on the bus and he dropped us off at the station, like he was supposed to,  but did not bother to tip or give any extra money to him.  But what made things worse going home was that the NJ Transit’s train door was broken!  This was at 1:20 am!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

The train finally started to leave… at 2:20 AM.  I called Giovanni letting him know of the new delay.

By 3 am, Giovanni was at the station and dropped me off home.

HOME!!!!!!!

Argh all those transit problems coming home!

Hiking on the Edge of a Cliff! {Day 17}

Okay yesterday was a disappointment.  I didn’t expect the Rolling Stones to be there and for them to close the entire castle for the concert.  But today, instead, I am going to go to Howth.  Second to last day in Ireland!  Holy crap this was a fast adventure… sadly.  I like where I work and all, but, I don’t want to leave Ireland!

Having already left the house and on my way to the DART station, I couldn’t help buy wonder where the time has gone.  Will all journeys be like this?  If so why don’t I travel more than two weeks?

The train station for DART was a little out of the way.  I passed by all the hostels in Dublin, the bus station was a little south of the metro station, so it wasn’t that hard to find.  It was a small light rail that leads towards the coast of Ireland.  Howth happens to be the last stop.  D’oh!

It was a bumpy trip, but I finally made it to Howth.  At first I had no idea where I wanted to go!  Even though I read through the lonely planet book last night, I guess all the ideas went out the ears.

But as I meandered around I found a park and a pier with a bunch of fisheries.  It was an interesting photo opportunity, but me being a vegetarian, I wanted to get going.  As I went north, I took a right turn and walked into a golf course.

I don’t know golf lingo but I heard: “FORE!”

A golf ball whizzed by my face.

Uh oh!

“Hey, off the course!”

Oh this was definitely a golf course!  I got to the edge where I asked these ladies, whom were playing, and asked them which way back to the main road.

Okay so taking that right was not such a good idea.. so I went back towards the main road and went back around.  I found an interesting cathedral, which was closed.  Pity.  So I went back around the main road all the way to the top of the city when I saw this huge sign about a trail!

Lightbulb!

It was a trail on the coast with a pretty steep cliff.  And no fence or border!  Sweet! Only that if I trip, down I go.  Stick to the hilly side of the trail or go tumbling down… hmmm..

This nice elderly couple took this photo of me!

I must have hiked that trail two times back and forth!  It was that gorgeous and that much fun!  It was a great day to be out in Howth!  But time was running short and I went back down towards the shore and pier to do some shooting before I left back for Dublin.

Horseback riding in Dingle? {Day 14}

I am sure there were other places I could explore, but I really wanted to head back to Dingle today.  The visit yesterday really got me interested in coming back to Dingle.  I got my gear ready and headed off to Dingle again.  Too bad today was a bad day to go.

When I got to Dingle, it was pouring out.  Aye.  Well not so bad that I couldn’t go around.  I went to the mountaineering office to see if it was in any way possible for me to go horseback riding.  Well if it was affordable. ha!

It was just a real pity that the rain was really coming down today.  ::sigh::

Oh well.  I changed my plans from looking to go horseback riding to going back to the mountain to going to the local shops to look around.  Around some shops, there were signs posted informing viewers that Dingle’s close cultural identity is in trouble.  In the letter, it warns that the native tongue of Gaelic and the traditions was in trouble from the foreigners coming in and well, globalization.  What was ironic was that it was written in English…

Curiously I stepped in to take a look and get out from the beating rain.  While looking around, I heard the store owner talk about that note he posted on the window.  I just kept on looking and decided that there was nothing else of interest for me inside.

The rain picked up its pace and I decided that was that.  I ran for the next bus.  Which wouldn’t come for the next forty minutes.

When I returned back to the hostel, I took a shower to rinse off and go to the pub.

When I got back to the hostel, I was at the lounge transferring photos when this Australian girl named Melanie came up to my table and started to talk to me.  I guess it was pretty easy to spot me since I was at the lounge almost every night on the laptop transferring photos.  While we were chatting, this guy was talking up to the Gillian, I found out her name!, about what to do when she goes traveling for three months in southern Asia with her boyfriend.  When the guy left we all ended up laughing!

Then I called it a night.

Where I will be traveling to in 2010!

Although I have plenty of time to decide, I need to plan my journey for 2010.  I have written, countlessly I am sure, that I will return to Ireland, I am thinking two international voyages back to back is a bit much financially speaking.  While I have time to change my mind, I think the pattern domestic, international, domestic, etc. is probably the better travel choice.  Since I want to see both what my country has to offer and the world.  So my decision is …

Oregon!

I hear the beer and wine are pretty nice out there!

Kinsale {Day 10}

On my last day in Cork I went to Kinsale.  Originally I wanted to go horseback riding, since I never rode a horse before and I thought it would be awesome to ride one in Ireland!  But fifty euros for a half an hour or an hour was a bit expensive.   So the agent at the information desk suggested that I should check out Kinsale.  Historically speaking, Kinsale was an important city for its strategic location.  The English defeated an Irish and Spanish force, remnants of the Spanish Armada, in 1601.

I was told that Kinsale was the culinary center of Ireland.  But when I asked the gentleman about would that include vegetarians, he moved onto the next person.

I boarded my bus for Kinsale hoping for vegetarian options.  I arrived with the rain slowly creeping up on us.  I went into this gift shop to find a map of the city and had the opportunity to chat with this really cute girl.  :)

Yes. I am the owner of this ice cream shop... in my head.

Then signed up for a tour around Kinsale, since I had the time and wanted to learn about the city from a person who has lived there his entire life.  Though, never know if he really came from these parts or not.  But oh well!  The tour guide brought us around the city, well the immediate area that was important towards his tale of the history.  The mast that was now a monument once belonged to one of the ships from the Armada.

After the tour, I headed north towards Charle’s fort on the other end of the city.  It was far and hilly and what made it worse was that the rain picked up and I made a rather large hole in my rain poncho.  Oh what a day.  I checked out the sights on the way to the fort and of the fort.  It was pretty cool!  I wish I had a telephoto to get the scenes from across the bay from where I was!  It would have been exceptional!

By the time I checked out every nook and cranny of the fort, my poncho tore in half and it was still raining out.  Crap!

I kept my camera gear under the poncho, as for myself, I didn’t care if I got too wet.  When I got back into the city I went to look around for a vegetarian place to eat, if possible.  But everywhere was a fishery, which is normal as Kinsale lives off of fishing.

So I went to a Spectra to buy some food before getting to the bus to go back to Cork.

When I got back, I went around Cork again to do some exploring before I would leave for Killarney.  I would, of course, head back to the vegetarian restaurant for my last meal, but there were parts of Cork that I haven’t checked out yet.  When the day turned into night, I left my camera back at the hostel, bad idea honestly as there were a lot of cool night things going on, to enjoy the night out.