Thurles Adventure

Good evening everyone,

A new chapter in my trip has begun. I have started working at a high end equestrian facility near thurles, Tipperary Co.

It reminds me very much of my time tree plantjng in northern ontario, my body is aching, the hours are long, you eat as much food as you can get your hands on, because your body needs it!

Im working with a top quality horses and trainers, and while thats amazing, my perfectly intermediate riding ability is almost struggling with these amazing horses!!

Ive been riding jack, my boss's massive hunter. Hes a fantstic horse that is very easy to control, exept when the other horses leave the areana to head to the track to do some galloping.. as soon as they head out the gate, that also leads to the trails and jacks beloved cross country course, he is no longer too plesed to be doing flatwork in the areana! His massive feet also sometimes get stuck under his massive body. But hes a powerful 6 year old that just wants to play!

The work is pretty typical stable work, turni out horses, feeding, grooming, muckkng out, cleaning tach and, of course, riding!! The riding however, gloveless, has created two huge rubbing burns on both my ring fingers... very painful!

As much as I am really missing living out of my pack, and moving around the country,  I am really enjoying  learning how irish horse farms work and run. 

I look forward to riding more horses of this quality!

Letterfrack and Cleggan fun

Just wanted to post a few photos from yesterday for those not on facebook!
Emily and I journied out to Letterfrack and cliften for a couple nights.... both two small towns with excellent traditional music!
Letterfrack is home to the Connemarra National Park, and we got to see lots of connemarra ponies! Especially on our horseback ride in cleggan where I got to run on the beach!

But here are a few shots of the fun :)

Accents

Irish, Australian and North American are the accents I hear most in Ireland. Its quite facinating when youre talking to somene and you can tell where they are from! But there are rules when guessing where travelers originate...

1. The most important one.. If someone has a North American accent (Canadian or American) ALWAYS guess Canadian first, they will love you if you if they are in fact from Canada, and the Americans will just give you the best, most enjoyable look of confusion if you ask if they are Canadian, its great craic! Of course though, if they have a deep southern accent.. dont guess Canadian.. you just look like a travelling fool.

2. If they are French, they have a french accent, or are speaking their own version of "Frenglish", and toss in french words mid-sentence, not even realising it... they are not ALL from France! For future personal reference, there are 29 countries in the world where french is the OFFICIAL language! Then there are confused countries like good ol' Canada that like to throw in two offical languages just to mess with people.
And to my international readers... not all Canadians can speak french... so stop having a weird interest in my friend Emily and making me stand there being a translator... not the greatest way to spend an evening!

3. Coming from the land down under! Kiwi's (New Zealand folk) are very similar to Canadians in the aspect of getting irritated when people automatically guesses right away that they are Aussies! My kiwi mate told me that I should just always guess if they are from New Zealand first! And an Aussie told me that if you ask if they are from New Zealand, they'll just laugh at you.

4. Now, good ol' Ireland. Another very similar to the Canadian and Kiwi rule... Dont EVER ask if they are british.. they will quickly take away the pint they so graciously just bought you and walk away.. you may even get a few death stares throughout the night...
And on the subject of the Irish... don't ever think that the wonderful show 'Father Ted' is British... that's also just asking for your drink to be taken away!

5. If they are from Aisa... thats it. All sound the same...

I was inspiried to write about accents after last night, getting bored of my own voice, and pretending to be Australian... which I think is the easiest accent to impersonate. But I may have taken it too far after making up completely false facts about the land down under... it also came to a point, after expressing how much I love the Haka (New Zealand Rugby war dance) I managed to get an elderly man (been drinking since 1030 am) to perform The Haka in front of too many people! They best part is when I learned that his son had just arrived at the bar and was the most embarrassed 30 year old I've ever seen in my life.

It was all great fun!

Take on Solo Travel Thus Far

Hello WORLD.. since recently discovering I have a dedicated reader from Russia... hmmm

I have now been on my solo travels for over a week! slowly climbing up the west coast of Ireland. Travelling alone not only has its perks... it has NO negavtives! (except for the fact that when you are alone on buses, and its raining, and people keep putting their seat in recline because they just don't understand that there is someone in the is world that is over six feet tall and has knees that when you recline into make my whole world feel like one giant Taylor Swift heartbreak song that just makes staring out the water droplet covered windows even fricken better!!) ...

But actually, I am thouroughly enjoying being alone and having no commitment to anyone else. It allows me to do whatever I want, on my time. It makes travelling much more relaxing when you don't have someone worried about bus schedules, or which hostel would be the best to stay at, or wanting to go out for a meal at a restaurant when you are perfectly capable of saving 80% of what you would spend at a restaurant by just cooking for one in the hostel.

One of the best parts, is actually when you are eating your dinner in a hostel, and there are other travellers, and you are FORCED to make friends. you learn so much, from people all over the world that just inspire you further to keep travelling. 

While in Doolin, I actually had a french-canadian roomate, and we decided to head to a local pub, that I might not have gone to if I was alone! And it ended amazingly, we bonded with the traditional irish music band, had elderly men tell us everything that people need to see in Ireland that most people never stop to see, I inturrupted the band by accidentally playing an accordian too loudly, played a 1905 concertina for the entire pub.. where I was promply boo'd off the stage and later nearly got kicked out of the hostel ...(wasn't my fault... :D )

Now that is a night that was totally unexpected and just so amazing and I am so happy that I got to meet such amazing people that I never would have spoken to had my friends been there.

At first though, solo travelling is scary, it is very intimedating and you have your mother constantly worrying about you... luckily I've accepted that no matter where I am, or who I'm with.. I can always expect an email, facebook message or text (sometimes all three) from my momma.
And, in Ireland at least, I feel so safe hoping from town to town on my own.. one of the great things about this country :)

LAUNDRY DAY

Good Morning Canada,

I have moved on to the the college town of Galway. Which is the town where the Lynchs come from!

Lynch, was one of the original 14 tribes to settle in the Galway area, and being possibly the most powerful family in Galway at that time, 'we' actually supplied the town with many many mayors.

Yesterday I went to see the Lynch Castle, which has now been made into an AIB bank. But it still has the Lynch coat of arms engraved into the front wall. There are actually a number of 'Lynch' Cafes and restaurants... COOL, makes me want to just tell everyone that I am a Lynch!!

Nowww... Lets learn about how the term 'lynching' came about.. not a very pleasent story unfortunately...

SO, around the mid 17th century, we, of course, were in power under Mayor Lynch (one of many). So mayor Lynch had sent his son on a voyage with a large sum of money, and a large amount of it suspiciously went missing! Now in order to keep this unknown to his father (because we all know how scary Lynch fathers can be.......) young Lynch decided to kill a spaniard that was coming back to Ireland to speak to Mayor Lynch. Now, it was some time before Mayor Lynch actually found out about the muder that his son commited. But eventually he did learn, and the guilty young Lynch confessed.
In order to keep the high level of respect from the people that Mayor Lynch wanted, he had to decide on a suitable punishment for his son. And eventually sentenced him to death. So, to make this publically aware, he decided on a hanging in the middle of the town. And he himself, hung his own son. And the term of 'lynching' was born.
I am told that there is a small black monument somewhere in Galway that shows exactly where this hanging happened.. I'll be going to look for it today!

Also, very exciting news! My friend Emily will be coming to join me in Galway this afternoon!!!! And she'll be with me for a bit of my west coast trip :)

Another cool factoid that I was told; (Its totally made up and really just a joke! ) 50% of travellers are Aussies, 40% are Canadians, and 10% is the rest of the world... and I must say.. I have met far more Aussies and Canadians than anything else! So this made up fact almost has some truth to it!

Two days ago I went to the Doolin cave.. where there is a 23 foot long Stalactite!! So that was pretty cool... It has a cool history! 61 years ago there was a group of British cave explorers exploring around Ireland, now the young chaps were getting tired of searching for caves and decided to take a day off! Except for two fellas who just wanted to keep working.. and they found a stream, a real tiny one that disappeared into a rock wall. They pulled back some bushes and discovered a small opening, approx 2 feet high and 3 feet wide. Now, many people on my little tour were saying they were so brave to actually enter that (in my words..death trap coffin) but I just think they were bat crap crazy! They crawl on their hands and knees... IN THE DARK (because they had turned off their little headlamps off for fear of running out of oil to burn), for TWO AND A HALF HOURS... GAH. And they eventually came to a chamber.. they could hear the echo of their voices and turned their lights on.. and they found this gigantic stalactite that had been forming for 600,000 to 800,000 years!!
On the tour, they turn off all the lights on the path up to the chamber... it was honestly very freaky!! Then the man turns the lights on, and it was AMAZING! it was so huge!!!
Very very cool!!!

Well, my laundry (first time doing it since leaving...) should be done drying...and I dont want anyone taking it out of the machine on me.. sooo BYE!! :)

Sore feet and aching back. The Cliffs of Moher

Hello from Doolin!!

Doolin is a small town in Co Clare, where right now im sitting in a living room, and there is a heard of cows about ten meters from me... love it!

Im at a small little hostel called the rainbow hostel where it just feels like a nice little home. One of the best parts about small town hostels! 

Today I went to see the famous Cliffs of Moher. And they are truely as beautiful as google says they are.. but more! I took the bus there, and pulling into the parking lot I saw about 20 tour buses and about 200 cars.. ugh. Thankfully.. tour buses never stop anywhere for that long (reason one why I hate them) this means that the silly little people that are being herded like cattle (reason two) must stay in the area where the visitor center is located.  That left the miles of cliff trails available for the non cattle folk!

I first went south down the peninsula,  away from Doolin, it was about a 2.5 km walk to the very end, where there was a very small, sadly quite unimpressive 'castle'. But the end had the most amazing view you couldve had! I was able to see all the cliffs from start to mostly finish.

I must take a quick moment to mentiom the weather... It started out pouring... and as soon as I arrived at the cliffs, the clouds cleared and it was sunny... we even had two rainbows :D

I decided to hike the cliffs of moher trail back to doolin, the lady at the tourist office said it was 9 km.. but I think it was less. It was a beautiful hike and I, in total  saw 6 people! This part of the hike I did you lonesomly.. which was perfect! (its raining again...) I got to play with a bunch of horses along this one path that apparently is now illegal to be on.. but I didnt realise where I was.. oops. And I got to stick my sore feet in the ocean on the rock bay that had huge waves crashing against it!

The best part of the day was during the second rainbow appeared.. it was actually truly one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen, but the couple of people that I had been hiking with and I could not stop staring at the sigh: two aisian tour buses had recently unloaded its hostage.. they were at the head of the trail... all of them, and all saw the rainbow at the same time, and they went BANANAS OVER IT! I swear they had never seen one.. it was just crazy to watch them all!! It gave myself and my friends a big laugh for the day!!

I would like to quickly mention that tours arent actually bad if you enjoy them... to each his own. I would just rather, you know, never ever be on one!

Don't turn into a 'Country Counter'

Last night was amazing. There is no better example of fate that I can think of, thats happened to me yet.

After my big day of horse back riding followed by cycling, I was so exhausted I could hardly do anything the following day (yesterday) I was even too exhausted to get myself together and leave for my next place! So I decided to stay one more night, with no intention of really doing anything but listening to some tradition music in a pub. I had no idea that that THE MOST INTERESTING MAN IN THE WORLD would soon be checking into my hostel...

Mike Spencer Bown is a Calgary native traveller that has been travelling the world since he was 21 years old. He is now 44. This man has been everywhere! He knows so much and has the absolutely most unreal stories!!

How it happened!
So, I took a nap for most of the afternoon, and when I woke up, my roomate told me that the most travelled man in the world was in the hostel! I got so excited that I just started reading everything I could about him on the internet. Then after dinner, I somewhat creepily waited in the sitting room for him to show up... when he finally did.. I had never been so excited inside but trying to act so cool and like I had no idea who he was on the outside.. we were sitting by the fire and I introduced myself to him.. when he said his name it took all my energy not to burst out with "I know who you are!! Im such a fan!! Please, tell me all your stories!!!" ALL MY ENERGY! We had some chit chat and I was telling him about my horse back riding and then he proceeded to tell me about when he rented some horses for 10$ a day in some mountains in the middle of somewhere... I truly did listen, but i cannot remember the name of those mountains... either way though, he put my story to SHAME. 
Eventually he two hostel working fellas had joined us and they asked all the questions that I didnt want to ask! And after a few dingle-gin and tonics, the stories were absolutely pouring out of him! We even went out for a pint after hanging out at the hostel, then back for tea around 2 am.

I have never been more inspired than anyone in my life! The things he done and seen makes me want to do nothing other than travel!
This morning over coffee he was trying to coach me a little bit with traveling and how to write this very travel blog. He was very excited that I was just starting my adventures and was a canadian around the same age he was when starting out.

Up next for mike, (yes.. I get to call him by his first name...) he is selling the rights to his life to a producer in hollywood, who will eventually be making a movie about his life! He also have plans to move somewhere cheap and warm to write his book.

I wish I can write down all the stories I heard last night and this morning, but there are just WAY TO MANY! I already cant wait for his book to be written and come out!

The most important thing he stressed, is to not turn into a 'country counter'.

Im so glad that I was too tired to move on yesterday:)

Big day in Dingle

Greetings blog readers,

This post is going up right now for one reason.. to please my mother. But it was probably the absolute best day ive had so far in Ireland!!

As usual, I had absolutely no plan for the day.. I was going to look into some things and decide from therr. But when the worker man at grapevine hostel (best hostel expirience) and I got to talking, he mentioned that he knew the owners of a 'dingle horseback trekking' sooo of course... had to check it out! BUT THATS NOT HOW MY DAY ACTUALLY STARTED!

Morning... went for a nice leisurly stroll down to the dingle harbor... I was thinking on gettin in one of those touring boats, but the mornings weather was like four seasons in 3 hours...So I decided to head to oceanworld! Where I got to see sharks, giant crush turtles and penguins. I also learned that when you talk to he workers there... they kind of let you do things that arent necessarily for the public! So I got to play with stingrays! (Feel like sandpaper and have the funniest mouths) I also got to hold and feed a starfish.. they are truly disgusting how they eat! Their stomach comes out of their body, and digests it before sucking its stomach back in. Gross.

Okay! Now! They best part of the day!! I took a walk over to that horseback riding place, and I was so lucky that no one else had scheduled a ride! So the leader man, Patrick and I headed up the mountain! I was on a big black horse named Honey! Now the best part of not having anyone with us, is we could go running :D we were cantering along the top rige of the mountain, and galloping through herds of sheep that went ballistic!  It was such an amazing time! It felt like it was over so fast! Unfortunately I didnt feel safe bringing my camera on the ride., so I dont have any pictures of it :(

After my ride I was so hyped up on energy I just wanted ti do something else! Which.. maybe I shouldnt have started at 430.. but either way it ended well:)

So next door to my hostel, there is a bike rental place owned by a jolly old man. He set me up with a nice hybrid comfort bike!
So around the southern end of the peninsula,  therd is a long drive that is meant... FOR CARS.. but you know, I decided to bike it.. how hard could it be! So I was on the road into a deadly headwind coming off the ocean, and it took  me absolutly forever to get the first 10 km! I was once again so lucky to have had such amazing weather!
Once I no longer had a headwind, I felt as though I was flying... I was even singing as I rode! And then I looked at the map.. i was only half way.. now, the oictures I took are truly the only way to descride how amazingly beautiful this ride was! I stopped a lot, which added to my time. But it was worth it.. it was worth bikig it, and jumoing off the bike every so often and climbig the rock/grassy walls that lined some of the roads. I got to see things that people in cars would have never stopped for to enjoy!
The unfortunate part of solo travel is you have no one to take pictures of you! Sothe timer on my camera was well used... actually, at one point, I failed to look around when I stopped , and after posing on a rock wallm I turn to see about 15 cows, an old farmer and his two border collies staring at me... but he enjoyed the fact that I was cycling this route instead of those pesky cars driving around that he hates so much. 
I also got to watch another farmer round uo all his sheep with his collies.. it was so cool to watch and he loved that I stopped to watch. It was amazing to see the collies at work too! And have all the sheep cornered again the fence, none of them moving!
Now... I was EXHAUSTED, so unbelievably tired by the last 8 km.. so tired I had to walk my bike for a bit (embarrassing) and so tired that the smallest granny gear just wasnt cutting it. And now on top of that... soo I said I started at 430.. yes that was much too late! It started getting pretty dark, and riding through the country side there are no lights, thankfully,  part of the sky was clear and the moon was shining real bright! Also, extremely happy that the last two km were downhill into Dingle!

When I got back jnto my hostel room, I collapsed on the floor and put my lets up right away!

...and eventually I got around to cooking up some really good chicken  stew :)

I think im leaving Dingle tomorrow! Not sure where im heading yet though!

Cheers everyone!

Dingle

Finally up to date! This will be a short entry.. I just wanted to express my love for coffee... the coffee here is just not very good at all! But today, after I arrived in DINGLE,  and checked into a hostel and did a bit our touring around,  I went into an internet cafe (now I was up until about 3 am last night and got up at 8) and this little old lady whom I could barely understand said I looked tired so she brought me a coffee on the house... THAT COFFEE CHANGED MY DAY! It was so good, it must have been 'irish' or something because it was amazing, and the cafe was so warm... ahh just the thing I needed :)

Time to keep moving

My last night in dublin was so weird.. I went to an actual professional darts tournament. My kiwi friend (means from new Zealand) was so into it and I just couldnt understand why! I wish I could post pictures mfrom my tablet onto this blog, but it turned into one of the funniest expirience s of my life!! Crowds at these tournaments are absolutely bananas! There are jugs of beer everywhere and everyone is dressed in something obnoxious! Everyone becomes friends at whatever table youre at, and after a few pints everyone is arm in arm singing and dancing at all the dart throwers! What was before somethig I would never ever have gone to, is something that I would totally go to again.
Now something cool about these events... there are hardly any girls there(;) ), and this is a televised events... sooo lets just say I was very popular with the camera men, especially with beer goggles, 2 pints and some weird hat on...

However...

After a week in Dublin, it was time to head down to Cork where I woukd meet up with my friend from Winnipeg , dean. Id have to stay in a hostel for just the one night, but then moved to deans couch!
The plan was to live and work in Cork.
So I spent almost a week in cork, looking at a few houses and scouting out potential jobs, until I found out that I could actually move into dean's house if I waited until the new month.

So with that information.. I packed up some of my things, left the rest at deans, and hopped on a bus :)

Dublin cont

When life gives  you barley.. you make beer.

So, moving on from a day in howth, I spent the day with a german fella who has been to dublin many times, but never outside of the city. So we decided to head to bray, a small town south of the city. Just like Howth, it had a cliff walk, but this time, I wasnt quite as adventerous with the length of my hike. We capped out around 6 km, and of course, with me, he had to get off that worn out popular path and I forced us to head straight up the mountain.. but it was further than I thought, and we werent moving too quickly!  Soooo we didnt quite make it to the top, but it was so beautiful! Yet again, blessed with blue skys!!

Now, at this point Emily and I had met another Canadian, shyla . And going out at night was a quickly established routine! Always starting with wine and ending with tourist men buying us drinks and wastig their money... its great to be a girl! Foolish men.

There is also the social convention in ireland to buy 'rounds' so that way everyones always getting a fresh drink at the same time! (Also... guys tend to be impressed when one girl carries three pints back to her table... another way of getting free drinks!!:o)

Hello again all two viewers (parents....)! 

OKAY THIS DAY WAS SO GOOD!! 

 

So Emily and I took the DART (Dublin area rapid transit) out to the beautiful fishing village of Howth! It was still, quite full of tourists.. which is why to get away... you have to travel off the beaten path.... and onto a path that nearly killed Emily and had us gasping for air as we wonder when it would end.... WAS  GREAT DAY! 

So when you get to Howth, there are a few things to do, (yes, only a few) you can go fishing, hiking, or you may eat fish. Now, I didnt get to go fishing (sorry Grandpa Miller) but we head right out for our hike. When you do the cliff walk there... there is no escaping to steady flow of tourists.. up to a certain point. 

Hike one: approx 2 km

Hike two: approx 5 km

Hike three: over 10 km... AND LET ME TELL YOU... it was definitely OVER 10 km... especially what freakin off-the road-way we decided to go... and oh before I sound like it was the worst thing of my life... I secretly wanted to be hiking all day and just didnt tell Emily and managed to get her to go on the 'easy, relaxing' 10 meesly kilometer hike... heh heh heh :D (she also loved it by the way) :) 

The Pictures really are the only way to describe the unbelievable beauty that we saw... just amazing! 

So this hike was supposed to take the average person about 3.5 hours, it took us 5. But we stopped, a lot. We stopped to lay on the grass and stare at the ocean, we stopped to collect shells from a small cove beach that involved beginner rock climbing. We stopped to stare at Irish horses that was the most beautiful scene I had ever witnessed. We stopped to take a million pictures and we stopped when Emily fell off a 2.5 meter cliff to check for broken bones... she was okay :) 

happy beautiful Emily before she fell!

Kind of wish I had started this e-journal when I actually arrived in Ireland, because now I just really want to write about what I'm doing today!! But I'll get to that after re-capping some amazing times in Dublin!

As soon as Emily and I woke up from our extra-long-getting-over-jet-leg-in-one-go sleep, we dove right into the major tourists sights! It was actually a relief to see others who are carrying their maps and camera in hand, people I usually shake my head at, but thankfully I just blended right into those annoying tourists.

We walked around the city center doing the main city attractions, including;

CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL ,aka, Cathedral of the holy Trinity, (left)  founded in c1030, it really was super beautiful... from the outside! Unfortunately we didnt spare the obscenely ridiculous admission price to get into the church!
Now on the right, you'll see that the Irish have decided to add a bar to the church... not a horrible idea... :D

The Coutryard at Dublin Castle

Moving along, we walked over to the famous DUBLIN CASTLE, which.. really wasn't anything like I expected! It truly looked more like a very rich house rather than a castle.

The courtyard  left), was very beautiful!

Now you wouldn't be able to tell, but the Dublin castle actually stands on the highest grounds in the city, and at the intersection of the Liffy river and another river (that now runs under water) it was originally meant to guard the harbor.


Moving along to the next church! (Now, I really do like seeing everything there is to see in a new city that I'm visiting, and the church's, cathedrals and big old buildings have such beautiful architecture... But I am 20... and that changes my interest ever so slightly!) So we quickly look a look-sey at St Patrick Cathedral, one of the two most famous cathedrals in the city and head over to something a couple of 20 year olds would like to do... THE GUINNESS STOREHOUSE!!

So the Guinness Storehouse consists of an actually very interesting learning experience, there are lots of big beautiful displays that show how the beer is actually made, and a wonderful "Taste Experience" where you get a tiny pint of TWO DAY OLD GUINNESS and you learn how to truly enjoy it. That, ladies and gentlemen was my very first taste of Guinness.. and I'm very proud of where I experienced it! How the coolest part of the storehouse was the Gravity Bar!!! A circular bar at the very top of the building, one of the highest point in Dublin, and you can see the entire city! We were lucky to have slightly clear skys, and we were able to see the Wicklow Mountains in the distance. (Where PS I love you, was filmed.) 

We ended our touristy day with a horse drawn carriage, the old Irishmen was very sweet and it was very cheap to get back to our hostel! We decided to take the experience up one notch and wave our hands out the window in the Queens wave fashion... 

Ended the day with a Pint at a pub inside the Temple Bar area... now.. if you are looking for an Irish Experience with ABSOLUTELY NO IRISH.... go to Temple bar, the first question always asked when you are in that area is, "So, where are you from". Its Great to meet people from all over the world, however the booze is a bit more expensive! 

Its a beautiful time either way! 

Alright so lets give this blogging thing a try.. just to keep all you Canadians well informed on this Irish adventure!

So I'll start from the day I landed in Dublin, October 1st... and guess what... IT WAS RAINING.. while descending towards the airport I was so excited to see this 'emerald island' from the sky... the greenest thing anyone ever flies over.. so I hear! But this is what I saw... clouds... clouds.. HEY MORE CLOUDS!  the first thing I was able to see while descending was the beautiful scenic view of the airport runways, the clouds were THAT LOW!

Once in the airport, going through immigration was my next step, and unfortunately like all the tourists, I couldn't just pass through without any hassle, they had to ask me a series of questions followed by taking my picture. Something that no one else had to do. Sadly, it wasn't a very private area, and I had all the exhausted, frustrated tourists all lined up behind me wondering what was taking this damned girl so long, just staring and taping their feet and looking less than amused.

Luckily though, that process actually made me my first friend, Emily, another Canadian doing the exact same thing as me with the same program and everything! Insta-friends!

The rest of the day was such a blur. I got extremely lost trying to find the city center from my hostel, and had to ask a little old man whom had the strongest accent I've ever heard for directions.. I had to ask him to repeat himself several times.

The day ended early though with a 7.30 bedtime! I slept very well, however it was quite an experience going to sleep with no one else in my room and waking up in the 14 bed room.. and having every bed full! It was a little weird... I should also mention that within this 14-bed room, was one bathroom... the smallest bathroom that rarely flushed and had a shower that if I was any wider.. would definitely not fit in! But at 9 euro a night, I cannot complain too much.

okay that was the first day!